Witherspoon Forum
About
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.
Each academic year, the Forum features six three-part virtual seminars that 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 seeks to foster rigorous conversation, meaningful reflection on fundamental questions, and intellectual friendship.
Applications are open to students in grades ten, eleven, and twelve. Those who attend three or more seminars throughout the year will receive priority consideration for the Witherspoon Institute’s week-long summer seminar in Princeton, Moral Life and the Classical Tradition.
Civil Society
Applications are not open at this time. Check back in come August to apply for the 2025-2026 Forum seminars.
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 a depleted civil society. Our democratic society was once rich with non-government institutions which directly boosted the prosperity of people within their local communities. Town dances, women’s and men’s clubs, bowling leagues, churches, and more were once ubiquitous throughout the country. Some of these institutions have taken on modern forms, but in most cases, they have either disappeared or relocated to online spaces, undermining their effectiveness as social institutions. We will explore how the decline of civil society has reshaped our experience of humanity, democracy, God, and beyond, and what we might be able to do to revitalize civil society.
We will bring key political, philosophical, and religious thinkers into dialogue with contemporary debates on ethics, politics, and culture. What does it mean to be human in an age where much community has moved away from the local toward the digital, or otherwise disappeared? What is the harm as more and more people select their communities based on homogeneity of thought, rather than interact with the authentically diverse group of people who surround them? How might we order our souls and organize our society in a way that aids our flourishing?
