Stephen Esquith, the second of four finalists for the position of dean of UNL’s College of Arts and Sciences, will give a public presentation and have an open forum from 3:30-5:30 Feb. 27 at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center.

Administrators, faculty, students and staff are encouraged to attend the presentation and provide their thoughts via this webpage.

Esquith, dean of the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities at Michigan State University, has been working on ethical problems in developing countries since 1990. His research and teaching has focused on democratic transitions in post-conflict situations; he has written on the rule of law, the problem of democratic political education, mass violence and reconciliation and moral and political responsibility.

Esquith is the author of critiques of classical and modern liberal political philosophy and on mass violence and democratic political education. He spent the 2005-06 academic year teaching and working with colleagues at the University of Bamako, Mali, as a senior Fulbright scholar. He returned to Michigan State in fall 2006 to become dean of the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities and also serves as one of the leaders of the doctoral specialization in ethics and development, which he helped to found.

Esquith completed his undergraduate study at Harvard College. He received his doctorate in political philosophy from Princeton.

On Feb. 18, the Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs announced four finalists for the position. In addition to Esquith, they are Barbara Risman of the University of Illinois at Chicago, Susan Sterett of the University of Denver and Joseph S. Francisco of Purdue University. For more on the Arts and Sciences dean search, click here.