Prominent Political Scientist to Speak at Ohio Wesleyan University
Alexander Wendt, Ph.D.
DELAWARE, Ohio – Alexander Wendt, Ph.D., the Ralph D. Mershon Professor of International Security and a professor of political science at The Ohio State University, will discuss the “Quantum Mind and Social Science” when he speaks Jan. 15 at Ohio Wesleyan University.
Wendt will speak at 4:10 p.m. Jan 15 in Benes Rooms A-B inside Ohio Wesleyan’s Hamilton-Williams Campus Center, 40 Rowland Ave., Delaware. His free presentation is sponsored by Ohio Wesleyan’s Arneson Institute for Practical Politics and Public Affairs.
Wendt is the author of “Social Theory of International Politics,” which explores the concept of constructivism in international relations. According to Oxford University Press: “Constructivist theory emphasizes the meanings that are assigned to material objects, rather than the mere existence of the objects themselves. For example, a nuclear weapon in the United Kingdom and a nuclear weapon in North Korea may be materially identical (though, so far, they are not) but they possess radically different meanings for the United States.”
In 2006, Wendt’s book received the International Studies Association’s “Best Book of the Decade” Award. In 2011, a survey of 1,400 international relations scholars named Wendt the most influential scholar in the field over the past 20 years.
He currently is completing a new book, “Quantum Mind and Social Science” (Cambridge, 2014), that explores the implications for social science of the possibility that consciousness is a macroscopic quantum mechanical phenomenon – in effect, that human beings are walking wave/particle dualities. Wendt also is co-editor of the journal “International Theory,” which he co-founded with Duncan Snidal, Ph.D., to bring together scholarship from international relations theory, international legal theory, and international political theory.
“It is a major event in the field of political science when Alexander Wendt produces new work,” said Sean Kay, Ph.D., director of OWU’s Arneson Institute for Practical Politics and Public Affairs. “This lecture is one of the first public presentations of this groundbreaking material – the lecture will appeal to all in the social sciences but also to students and faculty of physics, neuroscience, psychology, languages, and philosophy.”
Wendt received his doctorate in 1989 from the University of Minnesota and previously taught at Yale University, Dartmouth College, and the University of Chicago.
Learn more about Wendt at mershoncenter.osu.edu/people/faculty/wendt-alexander.html. Learn more about Ohio Wesleyan’s Arneson Institute at https://www.owu.edu/academics/departments-programs/department-of-politics-government/arneson-institute/.
Founded in 1842, Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier liberal arts universities. Located in Delaware, Ohio, the private, coed university offers more than 90 undergraduate majors, sequences, and courses of study, and competes in 23 NCAA Division III varsity sports. Ohio Wesleyan combines a challenging, internationally focused curriculum with off-campus learning and leadership opportunities to connect classroom theory with real-world practice. OWU’s 1,850 students represent 42 states and 37 countries. Ohio Wesleyan is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” listed on the 2013 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction, and included in the U.S. News & World Report and Princeton Review “best colleges” lists. Learn more at www.owu.edu.