Catherine Kuiper ’12, a recent graduate of the University of Notre Dame’s graduate program, will present the subject of her dissertation Thursday at 4 p.m. in Lane 124.
Kuiper, a post-doctoral fellow who is completing her research and teaching at Notre Dame, said she wanted to pinpoint the similarities and differences between John Locke and Francisco Suarez. Ultimately, she said she is interested in synthesizing the two natural law theorists.
“I think there are shortcomings in Locke and Suarez that they can help each other overcome when you let them talk to each other,” she said.
Her Thursday lecture will address the pre-political situation in both Suarez and Locke. Specifically, she will focus on how each thinker’s account can correct deficiencies in the other’s: Locke’s account of property, she said, helps correct deficiencies in Suarez’s account of human freedom, and vice versa.
Kuiper’s dissertation developed from conversations her senior year with Professor of History Matthew Gaetano on the apparent differences between Catholic political philosophy and classical liberalism. He introduced her to the early-modern Jesuit Suarez as someone who might help her connect the two.
Ronald Pestritto, Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Statesmanship, remembers having Kuiper in his politics classes. He said since she majored in American Studies, many faculty members, not just in politics, but in English and history, knew her.
“That’s why we expect this to be a kind of popular lecture,” he said. “She’s known to a lot of faculty because she was a top student, and she was a top student in a variety of different disciplines.”
To Pestritto’s knowledge, the graduate program has never sponsored lectures by alumni who have just completed their dissertations.
“We had news of her finishing up, and had news over the years that she was doing well, of course, because we have friends there who teach at Notre Dame,” Pestritto said. “We wanted to give her an opportunity to return to Hillsdale and be able to show everyone what she’s been up to there.”
