Witte to speak at Opening Convocation
Aug. 27, 2007
John Witte Jr., Jonas Robitscher Professor of Law and director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University, will deliver the keynote address at LaGrange College’s Opening Convocation, which begins at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 5, at Callaway Auditorium.
An internationally respected authority on marriage, legal history and religious liberty, Witte has lectured at major conferences throughout North America, Western Europe, Africa and Israel. His writings have appeared in German, French, Italian, Hebrew, Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian and Romanian translations.
Witte received his undergraduate degree from Calvin College in 1982 and went on to graduate from Harvard Law School.
Witte began his career at Emory in 1985 as a research associate and was named director of the school’s law and religion program in 1987. He became a professor of law in 1993 and was awarded his current title, Jonas Robitscher Professor of Law, in 1994.
Emory students have nine times voted Witte “Most Outstanding Professor” in the university’s school of law, and he has won eight other notable awards, including the “Most Outstanding Educator Award for all Methodist-Affiliated Schools.”
In his role as director of Emory’s Center for the Study of Law and Religion, Witte works with scholars in law, theology and the social sciences, and he serves as the director of a number of projects, including the McDonald Foundation Project on the Foundations of Religious Liberty and Rule of Law and the Lilly Endowment Project on Law, Religion, and the Protestant Tradition.
Witte received his undergraduate degree from Calvin College in 1982 and went on to study at Harvard Law School where he graduated first in his class and was president of the Harvard Law Review.
Born in Ontario, Canada, Witte is married to Eliza Ellison, and the couple has two daughters, Alison and Hope.
