The Manhattan Institute's Center For the American University is hosting a conference today here in New York celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Allan Bloom's The Closing Of The American Mind.

The book was an astonishing best-seller on the misdirection of the University, and the Center for the American University has assembled Robert George, Mark Steyn, Roger Kimball, Peter Berkowitz, Gary Rosen, Heather MacDonald and others to consider the relevance of Bloom's critique today.

Works from the conference will appear in the future in the New Criterion and at this site; but you needn't wait that long to read about Bloom. Here's plenty to keep you occupied until then:

- Allan Bloom, on "Our Listless Universities", the core of his later volume, from National Review in December 1982

- Roger Kimball's original New York Times review of The Closing Of The American Mind

- The Intercollegiate Review's Spring issue, featuring essays on The Closing by Peter Lawler, Wilfred McClay and R.V. Young

And, most significantly - we asked current undergraduate and graduate students to write on the continuing relevance of The Closing of the American Mind. Do read the winners below:

First Place: Daniel Geary, Boston College: "The Permanent Questions Are Still Permanent"

Second Place: James Crowley, Georgetown University: "The Hungry Student: Reopening After The Closing Of The American Mind"

Third Place: Aaron Roberts: The University of Chicago: "Bloom's Closing Revisited"