Lucas Moody is one of eight Michigan community college students invited by the Liberal Arts Network for Development to present at the 2020 LAND Student Scholars Conference.

His presentation will be part of the “Student Scholars Lightning Talks” portion of the conference, which is Friday in Ann Arbor. The mission of LAND is to provide a network for the development of the liberal arts in Michigan’s community colleges.

Moody, a second-year student planning to double major in political science and communication studies, did his research on “An Investigation of Marxist Theory” under the mentorship of political science Professor Kent Kirkpatrick. He was nominated to be a Student Scholar by Honors Program Director Nicole Margosian-Galindo.

The genesis of Moody’s presentation came from a course paper, which he used to explore a topic unfamiliar to him.

“Though I had no understanding of communist literature or philosophy prior to the investigation, I was aware that the Marxist following has always been considered by many groups (and certainly by non-revolutionary societies) to be the epitome of radical political thought, and radical thought will always prevail among those who are pursuing a massive structural change,” Moody said.

Moody, who attended Lutheran High School in Westland, is grateful for all the support he received from Professor Kirkpatrick.

“The word ‘discussion’ does not do our conversations justice in lieu of the fact that until the end of the semester I had no commentary of my own to provide,” he said. “In essence, these discussions were much-needed further lecture. While I did the research, he provided me with the primary concepts and did so with great enthusiasm.”

Moody stresses that although Marxist Theory intrigues him, “I do not advocate communist thought. I simply find it interesting.”