Author David Callahan to speak on campus

Author David Callahan, whom the New York Times has called "a liberal with a new emphasis on old values," is the featured speaker of this year's Conference on Business Ethics on Monday, April 7, at 7 p.m. at Virginia Tech's Burruss Auditorium.

The conference, in its 18th year, is organized annually by the Business Leadership Center of the Department of Management in the Pamplin College of Business. The event is free and open to the public, no tickets needed.

Callahan’s talk, “The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead,” is based on his 2004 book of the same title. The talk will be followed by a question-and-answer session. The book will also be available for sale at the event.

Callahan will meet faculty during an informal session earlier in the day to discuss how the topic may be incorporated in classroom teaching. As part of conference activities, Pamplin faculty members who teach ethics, business strategy, or business law will hold class discussions on various aspects of the topic.

Callahan has written extensively about American history, business, and public policy. His books include “The Moral Center: How We Can Reclaim Our Country from Die-Hard Extremists, Rogue Corporations, Hollywood Hacks, and Pretend Patriots” (2006) and “Kindred Spirits: Harvard Business School’s Extraordinary Class of 1949 and How They Transformed American Business” (2002). His numerous articles have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and USA Today. He has been a frequent commentator on CNN, CBS, PBS, MSNBC, and Fox News, and a regular guest on radio talk shows across the United States. He lectures frequently on issues of ethics and integrity to universities, associations, and businesses.

Co-founder of Demos, a public policy center based in New York City, Callahan has also done public policy research and analysis as a Fellow at the Century Foundation. He received a bachelor’s degree from Hampshire College and a doctorate in politics from Princeton University. “I was never interested in the academic life,” he said in an interview a few years ago in the New York Times. "I always wanted to be involved in public debate.” In “The Cheating Culture,” Callahan explains why more Americans are cheating and prescribes solutions to the problem.