By Eric Geller

The Center for the Study of American Democracy (CSAD) announced Monday that former Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein and political scientist Robert Putnam will be among the participants in its biennial conference — which this year will focus on political angles on economic inequality.

In an email to students, the Center shared a new flyer for the conference, which will take place April 9-11. In addition to Klein and Putnam, the flyer listed Austan Goolsbee, a former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama; Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the director of the Congressional Budget Office during the George W. Bush administration; New York Times columnist Ross Douthat and Wall Street Journal columnist and Brookings Institution fellow William A. Galston.

“Besides addressing some of the recent economic and financial headlines, the conference will offer an opportunity to consider timeless questions about stable liberal democracy,” according to a description of the conference on CSAD’s website. The Center calls this topic “just the sort of inquiry for which Kenyon’s liberal arts environment is so well suited.”

Thomas Karako, assistant professor of political science and CSAD’s director, said the conference’s topic was timely because “inequality lately seems to be on the lips of politicos everywhere — right, left and center.”

“CSAD is working with a number of campus partners to make this happen,” Karako said as plans for the conference began to take shape. “Faculty comment to me that they’re working the topic into their classes, and student groups are putting together events or discussion groups, all of which reflects Kenyon’s characteristic engagement in the policy issues of the day.”

This is the third biennial CSAD conference. In 2012, the topic was “Should America Promote Democracy Abroad?” and 2010 saw the first conference, “The Future of Political Parties.”