SEMINAR PROGRAMS
Transmitting Our Western Heritage Through Education
For over twenty-five years, thousands of students and dozens of distinguished
lecturers have participated in our seminars at Piety Hill. These
gatherings have addressed a wide variety of topics, including:
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A seminar at the library
at Piety Hill
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- T. S. Eliot and the Defense of Culture
- Can Virtue be Taught?
- Recovering Historical Consciousness
- The Founders and the Constitution
- The Role of the Professor in the Postmodern Age
- A Humane Economy
Importantly, these seminars provide for fellowship and informal
conversation and they foster an appreciation for the importance
of an authentically liberal and humane education.
On-Site Seminars
“Russell Kirk’s 1953
book The Conservative Mind gave American conservatives
an identity and a genealogy and catalyzed the postwar conservative
movement.”
—The
New York Times (1998)
The Russell Kirk Center administers an annual program of on-site
seminars that includes the following:
- Redeem the Time: These day-long seminars at
Piety Hill introduce the works of Russell Kirk to
the interested public. Please watch our home page for notice
of this seminars.
- Roots at Mecosta: A weekend conference
that explores Russell Kirk’s understanding of the “permanent
things” and ways this understanding may be applied practically
to social, educational, and political issues today.
Attendance is by invitation only, and participants are drawn chiefly from undergraduates
interested in the liberal arts as well as political science, government, and
public policy.
- Graduate student seminar: A weekend schedule of lectures
and seminars organized in cooperation with the Intercollegiate
Studies Institute for graduate students who are fellowship
recipients.
Off-Site Events
- Roots
at the Ranch: a weekend retreat held at Santa Barbara,
California. This is an opportunity for students of politics
and government to learn more about the postwar conservative
revival in America through a study of the lives of Russell
Kirk and President Ronald Reagan. This annual event is co-hosted
with the Young
America’s Foundation, owners of the Reagan Ranch
at Santa Barbara.
- The Heritage Foundation Russell Kirk Memorial Lecture
Series: Several lectures are delivered each year at The
Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. Previous speakers
have included Michigan Governor John Engler, Annette Kirk,
Vigen Guroian, Gleaves Whitney, Wilfred McClay, Kevin J. (Seamus)
Hasson, William Rusher, Rep. Henry Hyde, and David Willetts,
M.P.
- Transmitting Our Inheritance: Lectures and
seminars for teachers of the liberal arts in high schools and
colleges, as well as for the interested public as space allows.
These events will focus on one or more of Russell Kirk’s
books.
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