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The Witherspoon Institute announces the Fall 2025 seminars and dates for the Witherspoon Forum, the online seminar forum for high school students in grades ten through twelve.

The Forum’s 2025–2026 theme is “Civil Society.” Throughout the academic year, we will reflect on the most pressing philosophical, theological, and social questions arising from living in an age of depleted civil society. Our democratic society was once rich with non-governmental institutions—town dances, women’s and men’s clubs, bowling leagues, churches, and more—that fostered bonds of community and directly strengthened local prosperity. Many of these institutions have disappeared or migrated online, weakening their ability to shape meaningful common life. The Fall seminars will introduce students to this theme and explore what the decline of civil society means for our experience of humanity, democracy, and God, and what might be done to revitalize it.

The Witherspoon Forum provides a space for high school students who are serious about their studies to discuss foundational questions of human existence and contemporary cultural issues in dialogue with their peers and Witherspoon’s seminar leaders.

The Forum features six three-part virtual seminars that explore the theme of civil society through interdisciplinary approaches, including political theory, philosophy, history, literature, and the arts. No subject matter expertise is expected, and no grades are assigned. Instead, the Forum seeks to foster rigorous conversation, meaningful reflection on fundamental questions, and intellectual friendship.

The Fall 2025 offerings include the following three seminars:

“The Modern Problem” led by Timothy P. Carney – Oct 7, Oct 14, Oct 21

“Political Thinkers on Civil Society” led by Dr. Charles Rubin – Nov 4, Nov 11, Nov 18

“Civil Society and Technology” led by Dr. Luke Foster – Nov 25, Dec 2, Dec 9

Visit the Witherspoon Forum homepage for more information about each seminar, as well as the Spring 2026 dates and topics.

Open to students in grades ten, eleven, and twelve, applicants are invited to specify which seminars they plan to attend. If accepted, students commit to attending these seminars. Those who attend four or more seminars throughout the year will be recognized as Witherspoon Scholars. They will also receive priority consideration for the Witherspoon Institute’s week-long, in-person summer seminar, Moral Life and Classical Tradition.

The Witherspoon Institute congratulates Ryan T. Anderson on his appointment to serve on the Religious Liberty Commission. President Trump established the commission on May 1, 2025 to examine the state of religious freedom in America, as well as emerging threats to this freedom. 

The chair of the commission is Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and its vice-chair is Dr. Ben Carson. By July 2026, it will produce a comprehensive report on the foundations of religious liberty in America, strategies to protect religious liberty for future generations, and programs to enhance America’s religious pluralism. 

Ryan is the Founding Editor of Witherspoon’s online journal, Public Discourse. He created the journal in 2008 to enhance public understanding of the moral foundations of free societies, which includes the protection of religious freedom. Today, Public Discourse offers daily essays by leading scholars and public intellectuals to foster civil dialogue on respect for the dignity of the person, the family, the rule of law, the university, and business. In 2024, the journal received 1.8 million page views.  

Ryan now serves as the President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington D.C. He is the author or co-author of five books, including several related to religious liberty. A graduate of Princeton University, Ryan earned his Ph.D. in political philosophy from the University of Notre Dame. His research has been cited by two U.S. Supreme Court justices in two Supreme Court cases. 

Ryan’s appointment exemplifies what we call the Witherspoon Way: our strategy of identifying, forming, and supporting tomorrow’s leaders who will renew our culture and its most important institutions. We wish him well with his important work on the Religious Liberty Commission. Please see here for more information about the commission and its members.  

The Witherspoon Forum provides a space for high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors who are serious about their studies to discuss foundational questions of human existence and contemporary cultural issues in dialogue with their peers and Witherspoon’s seminar leaders. No subject matter expertise is expected, and no grades are assigned. Instead, the Forum seeks to foster rigorous conversation, meaningful reflection on fundamental questions, and intellectual friendship in an interdisciplinary setting.

Continuing the theme of “Minds and Machines” that began in the fall, the three Witherspoon Forum Spring seminars will explore how to understand and retain human agency in the technological age. Interested students should apply here. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

“Are My Genes Too Tight?” An Exploration of Genetic Engineering and Human Freedom

January 21st, 28th, and February 4th — 7:00PM EST

Led by Dr. Janet Madigan

Ever since the Enlightenment, modern man has looked to science to help unravel the mysteries of human existence. While science has opened innumerable vistas for exploring the nature of reality, untethered from its grounding in objective truth, it leads to scientific materialism, or the notion that all things can be explained as a product of physical and chemical processes. The result, ironically, is not an expanded view of reality, but a cramped one, since the human soul cannot be understood in the same way as the material world. The field of genetic engineering provides an illuminating look at the role of science at the juncture of human possibilities and limitations. Have scientific advances helped us to better understand human nature?  Can we as human beings reconfigure our bodily reality without affecting our souls in the process? Are humans inherently autonomous or social?  If the latter, would our ability to manipulate our genetic identities change the relationship between science and politics? If so, how?

Using excerpts from C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man as a springboard, we will explore these questions through engagement with classic texts from Plato, Rousseau and Huxley along with contemporary articles in bioethics and politics.

The Surveillance State and Society

February 19th, 26th, and March 5th — 7:00PM EST

Led by Dr. Luke Foster

How do we retain our humanity in the Information Age? What practices and institutions from the pre-computing world can guide us when social media proposes to replace socializing? All three of our authors in this series—Vonnegut, Hayek, and Lewis—lived through the civilizational cataclysm of World War II, and all of them took seriously the possibility that vast computing power would be used in an attempt to rationally organize entire societies. Today their worries seem to have been realized by the capacity of Big Tech to aggregate the data of billions of people, in collaboration with governments. Drawing on these texts, we will discuss how to master our tools rather than be mastered by them.

Transhumanism and Death

March 18th, 25th, and April 1st — 7:00PM EST

Led by Dr. Charles Rubin

A longing for immortality is a widespread human trait, but today’s transhumanists have transformed it into what they claim is a practical program for (at least) radical extension of the human lifespan. How would putting off death into an indefinite future reshape how we live and understand our lives? Would freedom from death be the greatest of liberations, or would it compromise the possibility of human happiness?

The Witherspoon Institute congratulates Professor Bradford Wilson on his new appointment. Dr. Wilson, a senior fellow at the Witherspoon Institute, was selected by Utah Valley University’s Center for Constitutional Studies to be the program’s first James Wilson Distinguished Visiting Scholar in Civic Thought.

Utah Valley University’s Center for Constitutional Studies is a “nonpartisan academic institute that promotes the instruction, study, and research of constitutionalism.”¹

Wilson received his PhD in Politics from the Catholic University of America in 1981 and served as the Executive Director of Princeton’s James Madison Program for nearly two decades. During his appointment, Professor Wilson will also teach a one-week course at Oxford University’s Pembroke College on constitutional government, civics, and law. Professor Wilson will begin his year-long tenure at Utah Valley University on September 1, 2024.

Read Professor Wilson’s first article written during his tenure here.

1. “UVU Center for Constitutional Studies Announces Princeton’s Bradford Wilson as First Distinguished Visiting Scholar.” Salt Lake Chamber, August 21, 2024. https://slchamber.com/uvu-center-for-constitutional-studies-announces-princetons-bradford-wilson-as-first-distinguished-visiting-scholar/

The Witherspoon Institute announces the Spring 2024 seminars and dates for the Witherspoon Forum, the new online seminar forum for high school students in tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grades. Continuing the theme of revolutions, the Spring seminars will explore art and aesthetics, the sexual revolution, and how we are living in revolutionary time.

The Witherspoon Forum provides a space for high school students who are serious about their studies to discuss foundational questions of human existence and contemporary cultural issues in dialogue with their peers and Witherspoon’s seminar leaders.

The Forum features six three-part virtual seminars that explore a common theme through interdisciplinary approaches, including political theory, philosophy, history, literature, and the arts. No subject matter expertise is expected, and no grades are assigned. Instead, the Forum seeks to foster rigorous conversation, meaningful reflection on fundamental questions, and intellectual friendship.

Open to students in grades ten, eleven, and twelve, applicants are invited to specify which seminars they plan to attend. If accepted, students commit to attending these seminars. Those who attend four or more seminars throughout the year will be recognized as Witherspoon Scholars. They will also receive priority consideration for the Witherspoon Institute’s week-long, in-person summer seminar, Moral Life and Classical Tradition.

The Witherspoon Institute is excited to launch a new online seminar forum for high school students in tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grades.

The Witherspoon Forum provides a space for high school students who are serious about their studies to discuss foundational questions of human existence and contemporary cultural issues in dialogue with their peers and Witherspoon’s seminar leaders.

The Forum features six three-part virtual seminars that explore a common theme through interdisciplinary approaches, including political theory, philosophy, history, literature, and the arts. No subject matter expertise is expected, and no grades are assigned. Instead, the Forum seeks to foster rigorous conversation, meaningful reflection on fundamental questions, and intellectual friendship.

Open to students in grades ten, eleven, and twelve, applicants are invited to specify which seminars they plan to attend. If accepted, students commit to attending these seminars. Those who attend four or more seminars throughout the year will be recognized as Witherspoon Scholars. They will also receive priority consideration for the Witherspoon Institute’s week-long, in-person summer seminar, Moral Life and Classical Tradition.