Alan Charles Kors is Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches the intellectual history of the 17th and 18th centuries. He has received both the Lindback Foundation Award and the Ira Abrams Memorial Award for distinguished college teaching. Dr. Kors graduated summa cum laude from
Princeton UniversityPrinceton University a private university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League and is considered one of the Colonial Colleges....
in 1964, and he received his M.A. (1965) and Ph.D. (1968) from
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
, in European History.
Alan Charles Kors is Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches the intellectual history of the 17th and 18th centuries. He has received both the Lindback Foundation Award and the Ira Abrams Memorial Award for distinguished college teaching. Dr. Kors graduated summa cum laude from
Princeton UniversityPrinceton University a private university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League and is considered one of the Colonial Colleges....
in 1964, and he received his M.A. (1965) and Ph.D. (1968) from
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
, in European History. He holds the George H. Walker Endowed Term Chair in History at the
University of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania is a private research university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and is one of several institutions that claims to have been the first university in America...
.
Kors has written on the history of skeptical, atheistic, and materialist thought in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
, on the
EnlightenmentThe Age of Enlightenment, or simply The Enlightenment, is a term used to describe a time in Western philosophy and cultural life, centered upon the eighteenth century, in which reason was advocated as the primary source and legitimacy for authority....
in general, on the history of European
witchcraftWitchcraft, in various historical, anthropological, religious and mythological contexts, is the use of certain kinds of supernatural or magical powers. Witchcraft can refer to the use of such powers in order to inflict harm or damage upon members of a community or their property...
beliefs, and on academic freedom.
Kors co-founded---with civil libertarian
Harvey A. SilverglateHarvey A. Silverglate is an attorney based out of Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is the co-founder, with Alan Charles Kors, of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education , for which he also serves as the current Chairman of the Board of Directors.He holds degrees from Princeton University ...
---and served from 2000 to 2006 as chairman of the board of directors of the
Foundation for Individual Rights in EducationThe Foundation for Individual Rights in Education is a non-profit group founded in 1999 and focused on civil liberties in academia in the United States...
(FIRE).
He writes pieces for both libertarian and conservative journals on political matters. He is an occasional contributor to
ReasonReason is a libertarian monthly magazine from the Reason Foundation. The magazine has a circulation of around 60,000 and has twice been named one of the "50 best magazines" by the Chicago Tribune.- History :...
. His essay "Can There Be An After Socialism?" was published by the journal "Social Philosophy & Policy"
Kors has also been active in the defense of free speech since his arrival at
PennThe University of Pennsylvania is a private research university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and is one of several institutions that claims to have been the first university in America...
. In the widely covered 1993 "
water buffalo incidentThe "water buffalo incident" was a controversy at the University of Pennsylvania in 1993. Student Eden Jacobowitz was charged with violating Penn's racial harassment policy. He had shouted, "Shut up, you water buffalo," out his window to a crowd of mostly black Delta Sigma Theta sorority sisters...
," he defended Eden Jacobowitz against charges that he harassed a group of black sorority sisters. In the early morning hours, as the sorority was celebrating loudly outside the dorms, multiple students yelled from their windows, in various ways, for the sorority to cease. When the police came to question students, Jacobowitz volunteered that he yelled, "Shut up, you water buffalo," a slur that was characterized as racist. The sorority members eventually dropped the charges. Kors later defended another University of Pennsylvania student in 2005 during a controversy surrounding the student's right to take a photo of other University students having sex against a dorm window.
In 1992 President George H. W. Bush named him to the Council of the National Endowment of the Humanities. He was confirmed by the
United States SenateThe United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate and the House are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution . Each U.S state is represented by two senators,...
and served on the committee for six years.
In 2005, President George W. Bush awarded Kors the
National Humanities MedalThe National Humanities Medal honors individuals or groups whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the humanities, broadened citizens’ engagement with the humanities, or helped preserve and expand Americans’ access to important resources in the humanities.The award, given by the...
for his "scholarship, devotion to the Humanities, and...defense of academic freedom." In 2006, he was the T.B. Davie Memorial Lecturer on academic freedom at the
University of Cape TownThe University of Cape Town is a public university located in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, and is the oldest university in South Africa...
,
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
.
He has served on the boards of The Historical Society and the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.
Books
- The Shadow University: The Betrayal Of Liberty On America's Campuses by Alan Charles Kors (Author), Harvey A. Silverglate
Harvey A. Silverglate is an attorney based out of Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is the co-founder, with Alan Charles Kors, of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education , for which he also serves as the current Chairman of the Board of Directors.He holds degrees from Princeton University ...
(Author) ISBN 0-06-097772-8 (1999)
- Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700: A Documentary History (Middle Ages Series) by Alan Charles Kors (Editor), Edward Peters (Editor) ISBN 0-8122-1751-9
- Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment (4 vol. set) by Alan Charles Kors (Editor) ISBN 0-19-510433-1 (2002)
- Atheism in France, 1650-1729: The Orthodox Sources of Disbelief by Alan Charles Kors (Author) ISBN 0-691-05575-0 (1990)
- D'Holbach's Coterie: An Enlightenment in Paris by Alan Charles Kors (Author) ISBN 0-691-05224-7 (1976)
External links