Morel to Address Founders' Day/ODK Convocation at W&L
Lucas Morel, the Class of 1960 Professor of Ethics at Washington and Lee University, will address the University’s annual Founders’ Day/Omicron Delta Kappa Convocation on Monday, Jan. 20, at 11:45 a.m. in Lee Chapel.
Morel’s speech is titled “Ever Mindful of the Past: Building an Honorable Community.” The event is free and open to the public and will be streamed live online.
W&L holds Founders’ Day each year on or near the birthday of Robert E. Lee, who was president of Washington College from 1865 until his death in 1870. Jan. 19 will be the 207th anniversary of Lee’s birth.
As part of the annual convocation, Omicron Delta Kappa, the national leadership honor society founded at W&L in 1914 and now headquartered in Lexington, will hold its annual inductions of law and undergraduate students as well as honorary members. ODK, which will celebrate the centennial of its founding in 2014, was the first college honor society of a national scope to recognize and honor meritorious leadership and service in extracurricular activities, and to encourage the development of good campus citizenship.
A member of the W&L faculty since 1999, Morel has teaching and research interests that include American government, political theory, black American politics and Abraham Lincoln. He is nationally renowned as a Lincoln scholar and is the author of “Lincoln’s Sacred Effort: Defining Religion’s Role in American Self-Government” (2000). He has written numerous articles and papers on Lincoln, has lectured extensively on the subject, and is working on a book titled “Lincoln, Race, and the Fragile American Republic.”
In addition, he edited “Ralph Ellison and the Raft of Hope: A Political Companion to Invisible Man” (2004) and is working on a book about Ellison, “The Political Thought of Ralph Ellison.”
He is past president of the Abraham Lincoln Institute, a trustee of the Supreme Court Historical Society and a board member of the Abraham Lincoln Association.
As the inaugural Class of 1960 Professor of Ethics, Morel will undertake projects exploring ethics, honor, integrity and character as they relate to W&L’s Honor System and to the mission of the Institute for Honor.
Morel holds a B.A. in government from Claremont McKenna College and an M.A. in politics and a Ph.D. in political science from the Claremont Graduate School. Prior to W&L, he taught at Azusa Pacific University, the University of Arkansas and John Brown University.
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