Stanley Kurtz

Stanley Kurtz is an American public intellectual and social commentator who identifies with the conservative movement. He is an adjunct fellow of Hudson Institute and a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, with a special interest in America's "culture wars." Kurtz writes regularly for publications such as National Review, Policy Review, the Weekly Standard, Wall Street Journal, and Commentary. Kurtz graduated from Haverford College and holds a Ph.D. in social anthropology from Harvard University. He did his field work in India and has published extensively on family life, child rearing, religion, and psychology in various parts of the world.

During the 2008 election cycle, he has published several journalistic pieces detailing the relationships between Barack Obama and various Chicago church leaders such as Jeremiah Wright as well as former member of the radical Weather Underground Organization William Ayers. In August 2008 Kurtz attempted to obtain the publication of the University of Chicago's Annenberg records detailing the professional relationship between Obama and Ayers. Kurtz's efforts to explore the association between the two men has been met with considerable controversy and has sparked a considerable amount of debate. The relationship has been characterized as "tenuous at best" by some commentators. .

Mr. Kurtz's disputed interventions became the subject of an "Obama Action Wire" issued by Barack Obama's campaign. This release, issued in advance of Mr. Kurtz's appearance on the popular Chicago radio show, Extension 720 with Milt Rosenberg[1], asked Obama supporters to call WGN radio and ask them "not to allow Mr. Kurtz to continue his smear campaign against Obama" , and to stop the spreading of "baseless accusations." . Most callers were polite, but did not offer evidence that Kurtz's was smearing the Obama Campaign.[2]

Honors

• Dewey Prize Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Chicago