News
We will be holding an intersession seminar for Princeton undergraduate and graduate students on integralism and liberalism. We will try to understand the nature of the common good, political freedom, and why liberalism seems defunct to some. This controversy is a live one among many, especially younger thinkers, and has implications for conceptions of freedom, […]
We’re excited to announce that Steve Whelan, Chairman of the Witherspoon Institute Board of Trustees, and Michael Maibach, Witherspoon Institute Trustee, have generously agreed to support a year-end matching campaign for Public Discourse, the online journal of the Witherspoon Institute. Steve and Michael have pledged to match readers’ donations from now until December 31, up […]
We are excited to announce that our applications for the 2020 Summer Seminars and Internships are now open! Join acclaimed scholars Robert P. George, Christopher Tollefsen, Candace Vogler, David Corey, Anna Moreland, R. J. Snell and others to deepen your understanding of the principles of a free society. The deadline for internship applications is January […]
All Princeton students are invited to attend a dinner and discussion with Sanjeev Kulkarni on work and vocation. Kulkarni is a professor of electrical engineering and Dean of Faculty at Princeton; he is also an affiliated faculty member of the Department of Operations Research and Financial Engineering and the Department of Philosophy. Tuesday, November 12th […]
Archangel Radio, an EWTN affiliate in Fairhope, AL, is featuring a CanaVox series on their LA Catholic Morning show. The series started on August 26 and will run every Monday morning until February 3. Each segment gives a “taste” of CanaVox and the topics explored in its reading groups, including the following: The Meaning of Marriage Friendship […]
Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University and senior fellow of The Witherspoon Institute, is being honored at the Catholic Information Center’s (CIC) annual John Paul II New Evangelization Award dinner. According to the CIC: Throughout his career, Professor George […]
When it comes to work and family, young people today have a dizzying array of options available to them. Yet they also face a deafening barrage of contradictory voices, competing cultural scripts, and copious amounts of judgement, no matter what choices they make. Many still see the “family track” as being fundamentally opposed to the […]
Ana Samuel, Research Scholar of the Witherspoon Institute and Academic Director of Canavox is moderating a panel discussion hosted by the James Madison Program in American Institutions and Ideals at Princeton University on “The Digital Attention Economy: Overcoming Distraction and Thinking for Yourself.” Panelists include Antón Barba-Kay, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Catholic University of America; Mark Bauerlein, Professor […]
This fall, we are pleased to announce our seminars on Facing Life’s Challenges, Finding Life’s Meaning, and Lyric Poetry. These seminars form part of the Institute’s efforts to assist the next generation of scholars in reflecting on truly human questions. For more information about each of these seminars, visit our Academic Year Seminars page.
Serena Sigillito, Editor of Public Discourse, journal of the Witherspoon Institute, was one of six journalists awarded the 2019 Robert Novak Journalism Fellowship by the Fund for American Studies in September. This prestigious, year-long program allows writers early in their careers to pursue projects they otherwise would be unable to research and report. Today, the […]
Maura Shea, the new Manager of Student & Alumni Affairs of the Institute, was recently chosen as a 2019-2020 Fellow of the Leonine Forum, a program that supports young professionals in living out the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church: Through a competitive application process, Leonine Fellows are chosen from the emerging generation of promising […]
The Witherspoon Institute is pleased to welcome three new members to its staff: John Corrales, Manager of Marketing & Communications, is a Texan native who new resides in Pennsylvania with his wife and son. His eight years of professional experience comprise work in journalism, marketing, advertising, and social media for The New York Times and […]
In the summer of 2019 the Witherspoon Institute welcomed one-hundred students, from around the country and the globe, to six seminars: Moral Life and the Classical Tradition (two seminars, high school), First Principles (undergraduate and graduate students), Natural Law and Public Affairs (undergraduate and graduate students, young professionals), Moral Foundations of Law (law students), and […]
A lecture by Robert Louis Wilken Much writing on religious freedom focuses on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and on the Enlightenment. But the developments of those centuries are only intelligible when seen in a longer historical perspective. The ideas that undergird religious freedom have their origins centuries earlier in the writings of the church […]
On March 20th, R. J. Snell gave a talk entitled “The Natural Law: What it is and Why it Still Matters to Policymaking” at the Family Research Council. The recovery of natural law is the recovery of reason itself, but a full-orbed reason, open and engaged with the various domains of policy and social life, […]
Calling all college undergraduates who are interested in moral philosophy, politics, sociology, and economics! Come participate in a 2019 intellectual retreat hosted by the Witherspoon Institute and Abigail Adams Institute. Discuss questions such as is America a normal country? Or is it somehow fundamentally different from other polities? What accounts for its special status, for […]
We are excited to announce that applications for the 2019 Summer Seminars are officially live! For more information about each of the seminars we are offering, please click here. This year, all applications must be submitted through Submittable. The last day to submit is February 11, 2019. We will not be accepting any late submissions. If […]
The Witherspoon Institute accepts applications from outstanding undergraduate students and recent college graduates for an extremely limited number of full-time, paid summer internships. Summer interns generally work on a variety of research and administrative projects at the Institute in addition to attending various summer seminars. Ideally, interns for summer 2019 will be available between June […]
Robert P. George and R. J. Snell have co-authored their most recent publication, Mind, Heart, and Soul: Intellectuals and the Path to Rome. Pre-order your copy today! In a series of fascinating interviews, the authors offer the stories of sixteen converts, each a public intellectual or leading voice in their respective fields, and each making […]
Please join us for a screening of #BigFertility: It’s All About the Money. The showing will take place on Sunday, September 16 at 7:30 p.m. at the Princeton Garden Theatre. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased here. This movie is the latest documentary by the Center for Bioethics and Culture. It documents the story […]
Enroll now in Civil Liberties, an free online course taught by our very own Prof. George. The course begins on September 13 and will run for seven weeks. Sign up here. About the course In this free course, participants will explore the moral basis of controversial claims of civil rights and liberties by carefully considering […]
The Institute is pleased to announce its 2018 Fall Seminar Series sponsored by the Center on the University and Intellectual Life. These seminars form part of the Institute’s efforts to assist the next generation of scholars in reflecting on truly human questions. Dr. R.J. Snell will teach two seminars of this series, On Becoming Somebody: Attachment and […]
Teacher: Dr. R.J. Snell Time: 12:45pm-3pm on Fridays, lunch provided Dates: 9/21; 10/5; 10/19; 11/16; 12/7 Place: Whelan Hall, 16 Stockton Street Many of us expect a life of mobility, moving from one opportunity to the next, always in search of something better. Of course, this often does lead to […]
Teacher: Dr. R.J. Snell Time: 12:45pm-3:00pm on Fridays, lunch provided Dates: 9/28; 10/12; 11/9; 11/30; 12/14 Place: Whelan Hall, 16 Stockton Street In The Abolition of Man, now a minor classic, C.S. Lewis explores the importance of our emotions in living well, and the moral realism required to order out […]
Ana Samuel, Research Scholar of the Witherspoon Institute and Academic Director of CanaVox, discusses Sex, Gender, and Identity. Watch the video now. This 38-minute video is a crash course for people with little time but a lot of interest in better understanding the science and ethical questions behind our gender debates. The presentation can be […]
On Saturday, September 1, Matthew J. Franck, Director of the Witherspoon Institute’s Simon Center, will participate in a roundtable discussion at the 2018 meeting of the American Political Science Association in Boston. The specific location will be forthcoming in early August and may be found in the online program schedule for the conference.
R. J. Snell, Director of the Witherspoon Institute’s Center for the University and Intellectual Life, will serve as a panelist during the 2018 Christian Union Cities Conference in New York on June 22-23, 2018. A panel of experts will reveal the “secrets” of their research in discovering how faith, work, psychology, and academia intersect for […]
R. J. Snell, Director of the Witherspoon Institute’s Center for the University and Intellectual Life, will lecture at a conference at Portsmouth Abbey in mid-June. Other featured speakers include: Cardinal Timothy Dolan; Mary Eberstadt; Jennifer Hubbard; Fr. Roger Landry; and, Brandon McGinley. For additional information and to purchase tickets, please visit the Portsmouth Institute’s website.
Since our nation’s founding, conservative Protestantism has been a critical force shaping American culture. Today the evangelical movement is clearly ascendant even as its health and integrity are widely debated. Can the movement survive the challenges of increasing secularization, technological innovation, political tumult, and other phenomena? In the fifth annual William E. and Carol G. […]
Matthew J. Franck, Director of the Witherspoon Institute’s William E. and Carol G. Simon Center on Religion and the Constitution, will join a distinguished lineup of speakers for a conference at the University of Alabama’s Law School on March 23, 2018. Speakers and topics include: • Victoria Nourse, Georgetown University Law School, Justice Scalia’s Textualist Legacy […]
R.J. Snell, Director of the Center for the University and Intellectual Life at the Witherspoon Institute, will participate in a two-day conference on The State of American Higher Education at Franciscan University of Steubenville. Dr. Snell’s talk is titled, “Why Faith-Based Institutions Are the Best Hope for the Revival of the Liberal Arts and Higher Learning.” […]
Calling all students! Apply now for the Witherspoon Institute’s 2018 Summer Seminars in Princeton, New Jersey! High school students can choose from two seminars: Moral Life & the Classical Tradition and Principles of American Politics. Learn more about our high school seminars here. Two summer seminars are offered for college students: First Principles and Natural Law & Public […]
The Institute is pleased to announce its 2018 Spring seminar series on Language, Freedom, and Making, sponsored by the Center on the University and Intellectual Life. These seminars form part of the Institute’s efforts to assist the next generation of scholars in reflecting on truly human questions. Dr. R.J. Snell will teach two seminars of this series, Technology […]
Teacher: Dr. R.J. Snell Time: 12:45pm-3:00pm on Fridays, lunch provided Dates: 2/9; 2/23; 4/6; 4/20; 4/27; 5/4 Place: Whelan Hall, 16 Stockton Street This seminar examines the philosophy of technology through the lens of responsibility. In the contemporary debates on technology, one tends to find examples of obvious boosters and […]
Teacher: Dr. R.J. Snell Time: 12:45pm-3pm on Fridays, lunch provided Dates: 2/16; 3/2; 4/13 Place: Whelan Hall, 16 Stockton Street Continuing our study on how the manipulation of language by ideology violates the integrity of the human, this seminar examines the sophistic tendency to flatten language into that which can be […]
Calling all students! Apply now for the Witherspoon Institute’s 2018 Summer Seminars in Princeton, New Jersey! High school students can choose from two seminars: Moral Life & the Classical Tradition and Principles of American Politics. Learn more about our high school seminars here. Two summer seminars are offered for college students: First Principles and Natural Law & Public […]
A message from Witherspoon’s Vaughan Senior Fellow Robert P. George together with the current and former chairs of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. January 4, 2018 To the people of Iran: We are Americans each of whom has chaired the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Each of us has, moreover, publicly advocated […]
The editors of Public Discourse, the online journal of the Witherspoon Institute, have put together a list of recommended yuletide reading from the Institute’s staff. Read on for ideas of books you might like to read this Christmas season.
NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS: CLICK HERE. The Institute is pleased to announce its 2018 Summer Seminars for high school, undergraduate and graduate students, and young faculty. These intensive programs examine vital moral questions in social, philosophical, legal, and political thought and have attracted young men and women from across the world for over a decade. With […]
“How should I live my life?” This all important question forms the basis for Luis Tellez’s impressive guide to living an examined and fulfilling life. Believers and non-believers alike will find many prompts for reflection in Tellez’s brief but profound pages. Recommended by professors from Johns Hopkins, Princeton, and UC Berkeley, as well as the […]
The Franciscan University of Steubenville has named Ryan Anderson the first visiting fellow at the Veritas Center for Ethics and Public Life. For more details, please see this article. In addition to being the William E. Simon Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation and the author or editor of several books, Ryan Anderson is the […]
The Penn Institute for the Study of Free Markets will host a lecture entitled Milton Friedman and the Development of His Monetary Economics on Tuesday, September 27th at 5:30pm in room 350 of Jon Huntsman Hall. Senior Adviser to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Edward Nelson, will be giving the lecture. If you are […]
The Institute is pleased to announce its 2017 fall seminar series on Language, Freedom, and Making, sponsored by the Center on the University and Intellectual Life. These seminars form part of the Institute’s efforts to assist the next generation of scholars in reflecting on truly human questions. Dr. R.J. Snell will teach the two seminars […]
Teacher: R.J. Snell Time: 12:45pm-2:45pm on Fridays, lunch provided Dates: 9/22; 10/6; 10/20; 11/10; 12/1 Place: Whelan Hall, 16 Stockton Street For the fall semester in keeping with this year’s theme of Language and Freedom, our Living in the Truth seminar will examine the work of Eastern European dissidents, including some thinkers […]
Teacher: RJ Snell Time: 12:45pm-2:45pm on Fridays, lunch provided Dates: 9/29; 10/13; 11/17; 12/8 Place: Whelan Hall, 16 Stockton Street For this year’s theme of Freedom and Making, the fall seminar Maritain and Art focuses mainly on the responsibility of the artist, looking closely at the thought of Jacques […]
RSVP for the Witherspoon Institute’s Forum THE FLAME OF CONSCIENCE: Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Johann Christoph Arnold 5:45-7:15 pm, Monday, September 11, 2017 The Union League Club, 38 E. 37th St., New York, New York Join The Witherspoon Institute’s Robert P. George together with First Things editor R.R. Reno, civil rights activist John M. Perkins, and others in honor of Johann Christoph Arnold (1940-2017). […]
The fourth annual William E. and Carol G. Simon Lecture on Religion in American Public Life, co-sponsored by the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, will be given by Rabbi Meir Y. Soloveichik on Thursday, March 30, 2017, 4:30 pm in Lewis Library 120 on the campus of Princeton University. Rabbi Soloveichik’s lecture will […]
Schools and universities need support if they are to perform their proper function. For over a decade, the Witherspoon Institute has helped the university accomplish its purpose through its summer programming. Each summer, we make courses available for high school students, undergraduates, and graduate and professional school students. Drawing on accomplished faculty, and held in […]
The Institute is pleased to announce a spring 2017 seminar on “The Constitutional Jurisprudence of John Marshall.” This seminar will introduce students to the legal and constitutional thought of “the Great Chief Justice,” who presided over the U.S. Supreme Court from 1801 to 1835. In the course of reading and discussing Marshall’s leading opinions, the […]
The Witherspoon Institute is pleased to announce that Senior Fellow Helen M. Alvaré is a 2016 recipient of the Alliance Defending Freedom’s Edwin Meese III Award for Originalism and Religious Liberty. The award is granted to individuals who have made “significant efforts in publicly promoting and defending religious liberty and a principled jurisprudence through the […]
The Institute is pleased to announce its 2016 reading group on Christianity, Open-Mindedness, and the Intellectual Virtues. This reading group is sponsored by the Center on the University and Intellectual Life. This reading group will discuss texts and themes that address, directly or indirectly, the place and proper identities of particular academic virtues in the […]
The Institute is pleased to announce its 2016 fall seminar on Ambition: Intellectual, Moral, Political sponsored by the Center on the University and Intellectual Life. This seminars is part of the Institute’s efforts to assist the next generation of scholars in reflecting on truly human questions. In this year-long seminar, undergraduate students will study and […]
The Institute is pleased to announce the appointment of R. J. Snell as Director of the Center on the University and Intellectual Life. Prior to his appointment at the Witherspoon Institute, Snell was for many years Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Philosophy Program at Eastern University and the Templeton Honors College, where he founded […]
The Institute’s monograph Religious Freedom: Why Now? Defending and Embattled Human Right is now available for free online as an audiobook. Religious freedom is under sustained pressure today around the world. In some places, it is fair to say that religious freedom is under siege. This book is a response to that sobering fact. Although […]
The Institute is pleased to announce that it has recently added three new sections to its site on the history of natural law theory: sections on natural law in the thought of the Protestant Reformers and the sixteenth-century Anglican theologian Richard Hooker (whom John Locke quoted many times in his famous Second Treatise of Government), […]
The Institute is pleased to announce its 2016 Summer Seminars for high school, undergraduate and graduate students, and young faculty. These intensive programs examine vital moral questions in social, philosophical, legal, and political thought and have attracted young men and women from across the world for over a decade. With discussions guided by leading scholars […]
Undergraduate students are invited to join in a weekly discussion of the Lincoln-Douglas debates in the Illinois contest for U.S. Senate in 1858 led by Professor Peter Field (University of Canterbury, New Zealand) and Dr. Matthew Franck (The Witherspoon Institute). The seminar will meet on Thursday afternoons a half dozen or more times this spring at the Institute’s Whelan Hall […]
The third annual William E. and Carol G. Simon Lecture on Religion in American Public Life, co-sponsored by the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, will be given by Professor Gerard V. Bradley on Thursday, March 3, 2016, at 4:30 p.m. in Lewis Library 120 on the Princeton University campus. Professor Bradley’s lecture […]
The Institute is so excited to announce the publication of our new collection of essays, The Thriving Society: On the Social Conditions of Human Flourishing. Available for purchase in hardcover and eBook at Amazon.com, the volume is edited by Harold James (Princeton University) and James R. Stoner, Jr., (Louisiana State University). Between the scylla of utopia and the charybdis of despair, […]
On March 10th, Henry Holt and Co. released the first person account of Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng’s struggle for freedom and his fight for human rights in China: The Barefoot Lawyer. The son of a poor farmer in rural China, Chen was blinded by illness in infancy and was fortunate to survive a difficult childhood. Despite […]
The Institute is pleased to announce our 2015 Summer Seminars for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students. These intensive programs examine vital moral questions in social, philosophical, legal, and political thought and have attracted young men and women from across the world for over a decade. With discussions guided by leading scholars from the United States and Great Britain, the Summer […]
The Witherspoon Institute, together with the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, is pleased to announce the 2014 Simon Lecture to be given by esteemed scholar George Marsden (University of Notre Dame, Emeritus). His lecture is titled “Beyond Liberalism and the Culture Wars: Principled Pluralism” on October 1, 2014, at 4:30PM in McCormick Hall 101 on the campus of Princeton […]
On June 3, Witherspoon Distinguished Senior Fellow Chen Guangcheng gave his first public address ever in English commenting on the 25th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Chen’s speech recounted the student protests and other events preceding June 4, 1989, when Chinese troops killed unknown numbers of civilians demonstrating peacefully in the main square in […]
The Witherspoon Institute is pleased to announce the appointment of Research Fellow Daniel I. Mark to the U. S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Mark is an assistant professor of political science at Villanova University, where he teaches political theory, philosophy of law, American government, and politics and religion. At Villanova, he is a faculty associate of the Matthew J. […]
Senior Fellow Thomas F. Farr, director of the Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center, presents Pope Francis with a copy of Libertad Religiosa, a Spanish translation of the Witherspoon Institute’s Religious Freedom: Why Now? Defending an Embattled Human Right, at the Vatican, on December 14, 2013. The pope gave a private audience to the […]
The Witherspoon Institute is pleased to announce the first annual William E. and Carol G. Simon Lecture on Religion in American Public Life with a lecture given by the distinguished Civil War historian Allen C. Guelzo, who is Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era Professor of History at Gettysburg College. The lecture, […]
The Witherspoon Institute is pleased to announce the appointment of Chen Guangcheng as Distinguished Senior Fellow in Human Rights at the William E. and Carol G. Simon Center on Religion and the Constitution. Mr. Chen is a Chinese civil rights lawyer and activist who has been a persistent voice for freedom, human dignity, and the […]
The Witherspoon Institute mourns the passing of our friend Jean Bethke Elshtain. She was the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics at the University of Chicago and the Thomas and Dorothy Leavy Chair in the Foundations of American Freedom at Georgetown University. Jean was a Senior Fellow of the Witherspoon Institute and […]
Robert P. George, the Herbert W. Vaughan Senior Fellow at the Witherspoon Institute, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School, and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton, was elected Tuesday, July 23, to serve as Chair of the United States Commission on […]
The Witherspoon Institute will have its annual Open House on Saturday, June 1st, 2013 (during the Princeton University Reunions) from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. at Whelan Hall, the home of the Institute on 16 Stockton Street in Princeton, New Jersey (pictured). Everyone is invited to come to read, hear, and see what the Institute […]
The Witherspoon Institute’s Summer Seminars are a collection of intensive summer programs exploring vital moral questions in social, philosophical, legal, and political thought. These small seminars are led by some of the leading scholars of the United States and Great Britain, and they constitute the core of the Institute’s effort to encourage and inform outstanding […]
Witherspoon Senior Fellow Robert P. George, in collaboration with Sherif Girgis (PhD candidate in philosophy, Princeton University; JD candidate, Yale University) and Ryan T. Anderson (PhD candidate in political theory, University of Notre Dame; editor of Public Discourse) have published as a book an expanded but less technical version of an earlier article of theirs: […]
