In the winter of 2001, five homeless adults died of hypothermia on the streets of Washington, D.C. One man, Jesus Blanco, a 43-year-old Salvadoran immigrant, was discovered 50 yards from the entrance to...

Years ago, a friend, now dead for many years, gave me a copy of "The Letters of Evelyn Waugh." I picked this book up the other day. On the inside cover, she had written a note. It reads: "As Flannery [O'Connor]...

Dear Freshmen (and everyone else, but especially freshmen): So, here you are, newly arrived in Washington, D.C., at a college. Amazing thing, a college. A self-contained community with janitors, sports...

Cheers to new MSB building   A common theme we've harped on this year is Georgetown's constant lack of adequate space for its students, but there is a beacon of hope growing next to the Leavey...

Plato was 40 years old (388 B.C.), as he tells us in his "Seventh Letter." The Peloponnesian War had ended in 404. The Greek colony of Syracuse on Sicily was in the ascendancy. Along with Sparta, Syracuse...

I was walking across campus last week and noticed the leaves on the magnificent elm tree in front of White-Gravenor starting to turn yellow. The thought occurred to me that by the time those leaves begin...

Well, I just finished another book. "Finished" is a bit of a euphemism, since I really only finished a draft that is now ready be read by my peers — hopefully without embarrassing me too seriously. But...

LONDON — I write this column from London, where I am spending six days between classes, giving several presentations on my books and current research. And indulging in a bit of nostalgia. Three decades...

I have lived in two worlds as a professional — nearly 15 years in the U.S. government and 25 years in the academy. Sometimes I am asked what are the differences and similarities between being a professor...

There is nothing like a good bout of the flu (which I suspect my students have generously shared with me) to make one consider the meaning of life and other elevated thoughts. My particular elevated thought...

All of the news this week is about Iraq, after the report from General David Petraeus on the impact of the troop surge. Petraeus followed last week's report from retired U.S. Marine General Jim Jones (SFS...

"So, how was your summer?" This is the question faculty and students will be asking one another this week. For faculty and increasingly for students, the answer isn't expected to be about where you...