Dr. Lawrence Mead to speak at Geneva College

BEAVER FALLS, PA (01/20/2012)(readMedia)-- As part of the Geneva Visiting Artist and Lecture Series (GVALS), renowned political scientist and author Dr. Lawrence Mead will be speaking at Geneva College on Thursday, January 26 at 7:30 p.m. in John White Chapel and Friday, January 27 at 10:10 a.m. in Skye Lounge

An expert on poverty and welfare in the United States, Mead has written several books that provided the main theoretical basis for the welfare reform of the 1990s, setting forth work as a condition of aid for adult recipients.

His most recent work, From Prophecy to Charity: How to Help the Poor, critiques the moral presuppositions of past and current endeavors to alleviate poverty while providing a framework for future efforts based on an approach proven to actually help those in need-charity rooted in love.

Government Matters, his study of welfare reform in Wisconsin, was a co-winner of the 2005 Louis Brownlow Book Award. This award recognizes outstanding contributions on topics of wide contemporary interest to practitioners and scholars in the field of public administration. In Government Matters, Mead explained how the government, by working together across partisan lines, can achieve great results. He analyzed the steps Wisconsin took to lower unemployment and reduce dependency.

He has also published numerous articles on poverty, welfare, program implementation and related subjects in such scholarly journals as the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Public Administration Review, The Public Interest and the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

Mead is a professor of American politics and public policy at New York University. He describes his teaching method as using major policy issues to understand government, linking policy analysis to political analysis. Mead recently concluded a long-term study of the politics surrounding welfare reform in Congress.

Both of Mead's appearances at Geneva are free and open to the public.

Geneva College is a comprehensive Christian college of the arts, sciences and professional studies. Founded in the tradition of the Reformed Christian faith, Geneva prepares students to serve Christ in all areas of society: work, family and the church. Geneva College's philosophy of education is based on the Foundational Concepts of Christian Higher Education. Geneva is a founding member of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU).