Helms School brings in students, faculty, guests to address state of constitutionalism, federalism in U.S. culture

More than 400 students, faculty, and guests attended the Liberty University Helms School of Government’s Culture & Crisis conference held virtually on Friday and Saturday.

The highly anticipated forum assembled 70 presenters to pitch research related to constitutionalism and federalism in a time of crisis.

The event was co-sponsored by the Helms School’s Journal for Statesmanship and Public Policy and addressed an array of public policy and culture subjects from a biblical worldview, including critical race theory, the Bible and the Constitution, and the origins of cancel culture. Presenters included Liberty students and faculty; faculty from other universities; and members from the Heritage Foundation, Forge Leadership, and the Virginia Family Foundation.

“The Helms School could not have been more pleased with the success of our first-ever public policy conference,” Helms School of Government Dean Robert Hurt said, noting that the conference featured four plenary sessions and 20 breakout sessions. “In addition to our excellent presenters, moderators, and assistant moderators, we are grateful to former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, the Heritage Foundation, and the Virginia Family Foundation for the huge role they played in supporting the conference.”

McDonnell spent most of last week speaking in government classes, and he remained on campus to add his expertise to the conference.

“Having a conference like this has been a longtime goal of mine and Dr. Mary Prentice, and we were so grateful that Dean Hurt so enthusiastically supported this idea from start to finish,” said government professor Dr. Kahlib Fischer. Prentice, an associate professor of government, and Fischer serve as faculty advisors for the Journal of Statesmanship and Public Policy. “I feel like we had a good mix of participants from undergraduate students all the way up to external guests from the Heritage Foundation, the Virginia Family Foundation, and Forge Leadership.”

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“There was a lot of great discussion in all of the panels: participants and audience members alike engaged topics enthusiastically and with mutual respect,” Fischer said of the conference. “I felt like the atmosphere was very supportive for learning and mentoring. The moderators, who were Liberty faculty members, both online and residential, provided thoughtful feedback to presenters on their work. It really was a great experience for everyone involved.”

“We believe we succeeded in our ultimate goal of giving our students, faculty, and other guests the opportunity to examine and promote public policy that best preserves our treasured American founding principles of self-government, free markets, and the Rule of Law,” Hurt added.

The Helms School offers residential and online degrees from the certificate to the doctoral levels in criminal justice, international relations, pre-law, public policy, intelligence and national security, and more. It also showcased its new Master of Public Policy residential program during last week’s conference, a degree that can help students secure jobs in international diplomacy and at all levels of government—federal, state, and local.

“It was actually Dean Hurt’s vision, hard work, and focus on the important issues of constitutionalism and federalism that helped inspire so many of us like Kahlib, me, and our Journal editors, to make this dream of a conference a beneficial reality,” Prentice said.

She thanked Journal editors Bess Blackburn, Catherine Latchford, Shaddi Spencer, and Yolanda Michelle Robinson for being key to the success of the conference, as well as Professor Stephen Parke, Titus Pettman, Charlena Schubert, Kahlib Fischer, and their Liberty public policy partner organizations, work study student Austin Gonzales, the CRS staff, Jerry Falwell Library staff, IT staff and numerous moderators, student helpers, and presenters.