CFI

Job, Career, or Vocation: Defining Work for the 21st Century
March 18, 19, 20, 2001

The essential dignity of work has long been respected in America. The Puritans honored industriousness. Thomas Jefferson celebrated the tillers of the soil. The Jacksonians extolled the "workingman." The party of Abraham Lincoln vowed to defend "free labor." In the twentieth century, "Labor" has become an institution, enshrined as a fixture on the political landscape, and honored by its own national holiday.

But the tradition of honoring work has always masked profoundly complicated and conflicted attitudes. In the past, admiration for the "honest workingman" was qualified by an aristocratic disdain for those who earned their living by the sweat of their brow. In more recent times the workforce has been divided by gulfs between the skilled and unskilled, the white collar and blue collar, and the salaried and wage-earning workers.

Today, the movement into the workforce of women from the middle and upper classes, and the increasing need for a two-income household, have raised new problems and questions. As we wrestle with the challenge of balancing the demands of home and workplace, we are facing anew the challenge of defining work in a meaningful way. Is a job simply a means of putting bread on the table, or is it a vital avenue to personal fulfillment? Is a career the primary goal or is meaningful work more important? Is it possible to revive a definition of vocation that includes a sense of "a calling?"

The Center for Free Inquiry Symposium, "Job, Career, or Vocation: Defining Work for the 21st Century," will address these questions and more by looking at such topics as the changing workforce in America, the importance of work to emotional health, modern vocationalism, and adapting the workplace to family life. The two-and-one-half-day symposium will feature formal lectures from nationally recognized scholars, writers, and civic leaders, as well as roundtable discussions. All CFI Symposium Series Events are open to the public.

Participants

Karen Bearden
is President of the Louisville-based Bearden Group, a human resources consulting firm. She earned a Ph.D. from the University of Louisville. Founder of The National Center for African American Leadership, she is a frequent speaker on leadership, motivation and leveraging diversity. She is frequently cited as a workplace expert in business articles in Louisville area publications.

Mike Duffy
is a member of the Theological Studies Department at Hanover College. His research interests focus on the nature and practice of Christian communities, theories of agape, privacy and confidentiality, sprituality and ethics. He teaches ethics, images of God, and Christian ministry.

Al Gini
is a member of the Philosophy Department and a graduate professor in the Institute of Industrial Relations at Loyola University Chicago. His most recent book is entitled My Job My Self: Work and the Creation of the Modern Person.

Richard Judy
is the Hudson Institute's chief demographic analyst and leads the Institute's research on economic and workforce development issues. He is co-author of Workforce 2020, Hudson's 1997 revisitation of its groundbreaking study conducted for the US Department of Labor.

Schedule of Events

Sunday, March 18, 2001

3:30 p.m. Opening Reception- Ogle Center
4:00 p.m. Featured Speaker: Richard Judy - Ogle Center
Work and Workers in the 21st Century
7:30 p.m. Featured Speaker: Karen Bearden - Ogle Center
Women in the Workplace: Myths, Facts, and Everyday Realities
9:00 p.m. Reception Hosted by Student Organization - Ogle Center

Monday, March 19, 2001

10:00 a.m. Roundtable Discussion - CC Board Room
4:00 p.m. Featured Speaker: Mike Duffy - Ogle Center
Constructing a Theology of Vocation
7:30 p.m. FeaturedSpeaker: Al Gini - Ogle Center
Work, Career, Vocation, and Identity
9:00 p.m. Closing Reception - Ogle Center

Tuesday, March 20, 2001

10:00 a.m. Roundtable Discussion - CC Board Room

To request a brochure or for more information about the Center for Free Inquiry, contact us at cfi@hanover.edu or call at (812) 866-6848.