RADFORD – School of Communication Professor Gwen Brown and political science professor Matthew Franck recently participated at an annual ethics and culture conference at the University of Notre Dame and presented “Apologia for an Honor: President Obama Gives an Account of Himself.” The professors delivered their presentation at the Tenth Annual Conference of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture: “The Summons of Freedom: Virtue, Sacrifice, and the Common Good.”

Brown’s and Franck’s presentation was part of a panel discussion concerning the controversial decision by Notre Dame to present President Barack Obama with an honorary doctorate when the president delivered the university’s commencement address in May.

The conference, held last week, was designed to reflect upon political and legal questions dealing with the nature of common good and the conflicts that subsequently arise.

In the presentation, professors Brown and Franck examined the efforts of the Notre Dame’s leaders to cope with the firestorm of criticism prompted by the decision to honor President Obama, and the effort of the president to give an account of himself in his commencement remarks last spring.

“Situating both the university and President Obama in the venerable tradition of apologia, the presentation examined whether they employed strategies of justification or extenuation that were successful or unsuccessful logically, ethically and politically,” Brown said.