THE WITHERSPOON FORUM
Overview
The Witherspoon Forum is an online seminar series for high school students who are serious about their studies, relentlessly curious about the world, and eager to wrestle with fundamental questions of life. Named after the center of civic life and philosophical thought in the ancient world, the Forum brings bright young scholars into conversation with key political, philosophical, and religious thinkers on contemporary topics in ethics, politics, and culture.
Each academic year, the Forum invites students to explore a common theme through interdisciplinary approaches, including philosophy, theology, political theory, and history. No subject matter expertise is expected, and no grades are assigned. Instead, the Forum fosters rigorous conversation, meaningful reflection on fundamental questions, and intellectual friendship.
How the Forum Works:
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Applications are open to students in 10th-12th grade.
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There are ten seminars in the Forum. Each seminar includes three unique sessions, with one session per week for three weeks. Students are expected to attend all three sessions of a seminar.
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Once accepted, participants will be charged a non-refundable $25 fee for each three-session seminar that they register for. Registration fees will be waived for returning Witherspoon Scholars and MLCT alumni.
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In the application, students will be asked to submit basic contact information, a short explanation of their interest in the topic, and a current resume or CV. Students will also select the seminars they wish to attend.
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Space is limited in each seminar. Students may apply for priority consideration in up to 5 seminars, and every effort will be made to place them in those seminars. If the seminar is full, students will be placed on a waitlist for that seminar.
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In addition to their top 5 priority list, students may join the waitlist for any/all additional seminars that they wish to attend.
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Waitlist decisions will be made approximately one month before each seminar start date. Students will be notified by email if there are any spots remaining in a seminar, and spots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.
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Those who attend three or more seminars throughout the year will be recognized as Witherspoon Scholars, and they will receive priority consideration for other high school seminars, including Witherspoon Institute’s week-long summer seminar in Princeton, Moral Life and the Classical Tradition.
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The 2026-27 Forum will explore the topic “Freedom From & Freedom For” in honor of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Freedom From & Freedom For
Two hundred and fifty years ago, the American Founding Fathers declared the Thirteen Colonies to be “free and independent states” and described the citizens therein as “a free people.” But what does it mean to be free? Is freedom a series of protections against limitations or bonds, or a vision of human action that places duties and responsibilities on the free person? Are natural and social obligations intrinsic or extrinsic to the concept of freedom, and how might that inform our interactions with other humans, institutions, or powers? What do free people owe to themselves and others?
In this year’s Witherspoon Forum, we will interrogate the concept of freedom and explore the contrasting (or complementary) visions of freedom as from constraints and for (unto) good ends. Following the Founders, who declared independence only to “form a more perfect union,” we will consider freedom as it relates to interdependency, demanding concern for others rather than dissolving all social ties. We will reflect on what is rightly owed, in freedom, to country, neighbor, God, the opposite sex, children, and strangers. In an age of rapidly changing technology, we will discuss what freedom means in a virtual reality, with online personalities, and alongside artificial intelligences. We will contemplate how natural law and social mores enlarge and shape the demands of freedom. At the end of the year, students will have a robust understanding of the value and purpose of freedom for the human person.
FALL 2026
What is Freedom?
Led by Micah Watson
Wednesdays at 7 PM ET — Oct 7, 14, and 21
Full description forthcoming…. This seminar will explore the philosophical concept of freedom, considering human action and freewill, as well as its historical understanding in the United States.
About Micah Watson:
Micah Watson, PhD, is the Program Director for Calvin University’s Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) Program, Executive Director of the Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics, and the Paul B. Henry Chair in Political Science at Calvin University.
The Obligations of Education
Led by Luke Foster
Tuesdays at 7 PM ET — Oct 20, 27, and Nov 3
Full description forthcoming…. This seminar will consider what educators and educational institutions owe to their students, and what “the educated” owe to society.
About Luke Foster:
Dr. Luke Foster is Assistant Professor of Government at Hillsdale College in Washington, D.C. From 2022-24 he was a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at the Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government at the University of Notre Dame, and from 2020-22 he was a Visiting Research Fellow at Sciences Po Paris. His research and teaching concerns American and French political thought on aristocracy, democracy, and the role of the university in elite formation.
Freedom in the Era of AI
Led by Joseph Vukov
Wednesdays at 7 PM ET — Oct 28, Nov 4, and Nov 11
The rise of artificial intelligence challenges human freedom along several fronts. How do we retain robust agency when our decisions are nudged this way and that way by algorithms? How to understand responsibility in world where AI agents, autonomous weapons, and other new technologies are taking over human decision-making? Do we have any obligations to the strangers (and now, chatbots!) we meet online? This forum will explore these questions and other questions at the intersection of human freedom and modern technology.
About Joseph Vukov:
Dr. Joseph Vukov is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and the Associate Director of the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage at Loyola University Chicago. He is the author of several books, including the forthcoming book Reclaiming Reality. Vukov serves on the AI Research Group, convened by the Dicastery for Culture and Education, and is the President of Philosophers in Jesuit Education.
What Do We Owe the Disabled?
Led by Justin Hawkins
TBC: Wednesdays at 7 PM ET — Dec 1, 8, and 15
Full description forthcoming…. This seminar will consider what it means to be “disabled,” what is owed to some of the weakest members of society, and how their freedom and flourishing intersects with modern social and political issues. Down’s syndrome will be used as a case study.
About Justin Hawkins:
Dr. Justin Hawkins is a Postdoctoral researcher in bioethics at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. His current research focuses on the significance of disability theory for clinical care, and the legal and philosophical issues surrounding Presidential Bioethics Commissions in the United States. He received his PhD with distinction from Yale University in 2024 and, in 2023, was named one of Yale’s Prize Teaching Fellows.
God (and?/or?) Country
Led by Karen Taliaferro (TBC)
TBC: Wednesdays at 7 PM ET — December 2, 9, and 16
Full description forthcoming…. This seminar will consider the freedom of religion, how the language of patriotism and religion intertwine, and the similarities and differences between what is owed to God and what is owed to one’s country.
About Karen Taliaferro:
Karen Taliaferro, PhD, is Associate Professor of Humanities in the Hamilton School at the University of Florida. She previously taught at Arizona State University. In 2024–2025, she was a Fulbright Fellow in Morocco, where she previously served as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Her research interests include ancient and medieval political philosophy as well as religion and politics, with a particular emphasis on Islamic thought.
SPRING 2026
What Do We Owe to Dates?
Led by Janet Madigan
Tuesdays at 7 PM ET — Jan 26, Feb 2, and Feb 9
Full description forthcoming…. This seminar will consider what we owe to the opposite sex, particularly with respect to dating, romantic relationships, and marriage.
About Janet Madigan:
Janet Madigan, PhD, is a graduate of the University of Maryland and a lecturer in the Princeton University Department of Politics. She teaches Humanities at the Wilberforce School in Princeton, New Jersey.
Faith, Friendliness, & Freewill
Led by Ephraim Radner
Tuesdays at 7 PM ET — Feb 23, Mar 2, and Mar 9
Full description forthcoming…. This seminar will consider why and how individuals should be concerned with people of faith, looking within and among different religious traditions (with a focus on Christianity) to explore a common-good approach to religious politics and ecumenism.
About Ephraim Radner:
Ephraim Radner (Ph.D., Yale University) is Professor of Historical Theology (Emeritus) at Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto, and an Anglican/Episcopal priest. He is the author, most recently, of various books on Scripture, the Holy Spirit, the Church, and the nature of the human person, including Mortal Goods (2024), and A Time to Keep (2016). A former missionary in Burundi (Africa), he has been active in the affairs of the global Anglican Communion and now lives with his family in Denver, Colorado.
Freedom, Throwaway Culture, and the Vulnerable at the Edges of Life
Led by Charles Camosy
Wednesdays at 7 PM ET — Feb 24, Mar 3, and Mar 10
What does a free society owe to those who cannot advocate for themselves: prenatal and neonatal children, the person with catastrophic brain injury/disease, and those who are terminally ill? This seminar explores one of the most urgent and under-examined questions in contemporary (bio)ethics: whether authentic freedom includes the responsibility to protect, encounter, and show hospitality for the most vulnerable among us, even when doing so is (by standards of our throwaway culture) burdensome and inconvenient. Drawing also on philosophy, bioethics, and social science, students will wrestle with what makes a human life valuable, what obligations the strong owe the weak, and what it means to build a counterculture of encounter and hospitality.
About Charles Camosy:
Charlie Camosy teaches moral theology and bioethics at the Catholic University of America. Before that, he spent three years teaching bioethics at the Creighton School of Medicine and moral theology at St. Joseph Seminary in New York. Among other places, his articles have appeared in the American Journal of Bioethics, Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, New York Times, The Atlantic, New York Post and America magazine. He has columns with the Washington Examiner and Religion News Service and does regular Q&As for OSV News. He is the author of eleven books, eight of which have won awards.
What Do We Owe to Enemies?
Led by Joseph Capizzi
TBC: Tuesdays at 7 PM ET — Mar 30, Apr 6, and Apr 13
Full description forthcoming…. This seminar will consider what we owe to our enemies, exploring extreme examples like just war theory but also peaceful spheres: How should we treat political opponents? How do we interact with people whose worldviews are noxious to us? Why should we be concerned with peace or the rights of our enemies?
About Joseph Capizzi:
Joseph E. Capizzi, Ph.D. is the McGrath-Cavadini Director of the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame. Prior to joining the McGrath Institute, he served as dean of the School of Theology and Religious Studies and ordinary professor of moral theology at The Catholic University of America. He teaches in the areas of social and political theology, with special interests in issues in peace and war, citizenship, political authority, and Augustinian theology. He has written, lectured, and published widely on just war theory, bioethics, the history of moral theology, and political liberalism.
What Do We Owe to Friends?
Led by Elizabeth Corey
Wednesdays at 7 PM ET — Mar 31, Apr 7, and Apr 14
Full description forthcoming…. This seminar will consider the philosophical basis of friendship, exploring the human need for friendship, how to choose friends, the foundational and restorative nature of friendships in civic life and community, and the obligations we have to our friends.
About Elizabeth Corey:
Elizabeth Corey, PhD, joined the Honors Program’s faculty at Baylor University in 2007 and has served as Director since 2015. She writes for First Things and serves on the board of the Institute on Religion and Public Life. She has also published in The Atlantic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, National Affairs, The Wall Street Journal, and in a variety of scholarly journals. Her book about liberal education and the affections, The Heart of Learning, will be published by Basic Liberty in early 2027.
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