Mary and David Nichols Great Books Conference a Success

Over thirty-six attended this year’s Mary and David Nichols Great Books Conference held May 14-15 in Waco, Texas. The annual conference is sponsored by the Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization (AHI). In its 15th year, the purpose of the conference is to facilitate conversations among Baylor’s graduate students (and now former graduate students) and faculty on selected topics of Western Civilization. The conference was renamed in 2018 in honor of Mary and David Nichols, two emeriti professors of Baylor’s political science department, whose labors were indispensable in making the conference a showpiece for the department’s graduate program.

2024 Annual Great Books Conference. Photo credit Baylor University

Dr. Timothy Burns commented in his opening conference address “that the annual AHI conference constituted one of high points of the PhD program at Baylor and illustrated graduate education at its best by the civil discussion of foundational ideas and institutions.”