5:30 Cocktail and Hors d’Oeuvres | 6:30 Opening Remarks | 6:45 Dialogue and Q&A | 7:30 End
Through the generosity of LCI’s donors, undergraduate and graduate students are able to attend this event for free. Interested students should email Marial Corona at mcorona@lumenchristi.org to register.
This event is cosponsored at The Point Magazine.
Published in 2009, Matthew Crawford’s Shop Class as Soulcraft became an unexpected best-seller. Written by a University of Chicago PhD and motorcycle mechanic, the book explored the value of craftsmanship and manual work in a world increasingly dominated by technology and abstract thinking.
Drawing on his own experiences as a philosopher and motorcycle mechanic, Crawford argued that hands-on labor offers a sense of purpose, fulfillment, and autonomy often lacking in the world around us. The book delves into the intellectual and philosophical richness of craftsmanship, challenging the conventional wisdom that separates thinking from doing, and seeks to reintegrate man with the created world.
In this downtown conversation, Crawford will rehearse the major themes of his bestseller. He will then enter into conversation with experts in Catholic social thought, to discuss the ways in which his insights about purposeful work and craft resonate with the Church’s insights about the dignity of labor and the value of the created world.
Crawford will be joined by Kirk Doran, a University of Notre Dame economist and expert in labor economics and Catholic Social Thought, and Elisa Rubbo, a University of Chicago economist, whose research focuses on how macroeconomic variables affect different industries and labor markets.