SOUTHEAST PROFESSOR RESEARCHES AT UCSC

Mitchel Gerber, a Southeast Missouri State University assistant professor and political theorist in the political science department, spent the summer at the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) as a participant in a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) program.

Gerber was awarded the NEH grant after a highly competitive selection process.

He spent six weeks at UCSC engaged in research and scholarly discussion as a participant of the institute entitled "Athenian Democracy." While there, he studied ancient Athenian democracy in conjunction with an historical and comparative evaluation of contemporary democratic political systems.

Gerber's research critically examined the conceptual continuity of thought between classical Greek political theory, in particular Athenian democratic thought, and modern liberal democratic political theory, focusing on a shared understanding of the concepts of community, public good and the law.

As a seminar participant, Gerber worked with many of the "great books" of classical Greek political philosophy.

Gerber's article, "Classical Greek Political Philosophy and the Concepts of Community and Nomos," has been submitted for publication.

In the fall of 1993, he and other political theorists of the seminar plan to convene a scholarly panel for the American Political Science Association's annual meeting focusing on the 2500th anniversary of the foundation of Athenian democracy.