Valor Institute Events
Valor Fall Symposium with Dr. Jason Baxter
Valor Fall Symposium with Dr. Jason Baxter
Our symposia are large gatherings that celebrate the intellectual life among friends. Rooted in a spirit of gratitude and renewal, these occasions are marked by true leisure — time intentionally set aside for reflection on the highest things. With opportunities for seminar and lecture alongside moments of fellowship, participants are invited into formation, contemplation, and authentic community. These days seek to deepen our understanding of a full human life by integrating timely reflections with timeless truths.
These days bring together a community of more than five hundred participants, including Valor faculty as well as friends who share our interesting in promoting an adequate philosophical anthropology, a fitting community for the human person, and a deep gratitude for the gift of creation.
This year’s Fall Symposium theme is “The Poet and the Polis,” which will invite Valor faculty and friends to reflect on the role of poetry and art in a republic. Our keynote speaker this year is Dr. Jason Baxter, Director of the Center for Beauty and Culture at Benedictine College.
All Valor Institute events are invitation only, and we regularly invite people from our interest list to join us. Please fill out the brief form below to join the list.
About the Speaker
Dr. Jason Baxter is Executive Director of the Center for Beauty and Culture at Benedictine College, where his teaching and writing explore the relationship between beauty, contemplation, technology, and the Christian intellectual tradition. Prior to joining Benedictine, he served for more than a decade at Wyoming Catholic College, where he was Associate Professor of Fine Arts and Humanities and later Academic Dean. He has also served as a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Baxter’s work consistently seeks to recover the imaginative and contemplative dimensions of education and culture in an age shaped by technological distraction and fragmentation.
Dr. Baxter earned his doctorate in Literature from the University of Notre Dame, where his studies focused on medieval literature, Dante, cosmology, and the Christian intellectual tradition. He is the author of numerous books, including The Medieval Mind of C. S. Lewis and A Beginner’s Guide to Dante’s Divine Comedy. He is also currently completing a new translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy. His scholarship and public writing frequently engage themes of beauty, imagination, pilgrimage, friendship, and the recovery of humane learning within contemporary culture.
In addition to his academic work, Dr. Baxter is a widely celebrated lecturer and essayist whose writing and interviews have appeared through organizations and publications including the Lumen Christi Institute, The Imaginative Conservative, EWTN, and numerous podcasts and lecture series devoted to literature, education, and culture. His work brings together literature, philosophy, theology, and cultural criticism in order to illuminate the enduring relevance of the classical and Christian tradition for the modern world.
Valor Winter Symposium with Fr. Thomas Joseph White
Valor Winter Symposium with Fr. Thomas Joseph White
Our symposia are large gatherings that celebrate the intellectual life among friends. Rooted in a spirit of gratitude and renewal, these occasions are marked by true leisure — time intentionally set aside for reflection on the highest things. With opportunities for seminar and lecture alongside moments of fellowship, participants are invited into formation, contemplation, and authentic community. These days seek to deepen our understanding of a full human life by integrating timely reflections with timeless truths.
These days bring together a community of more than five hundred participants, including Valor faculty as well as friends who share our interesting in promoting an adequate philosophical anthropology, a fitting community for the human person, and a deep gratitude for the gift of creation.
This year’s Winter Symposium theme will be announced soon. Our keynote speaker this year is Fr. Thomas Joseph White, the Rector Magnificus of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas, who will speak on “Theology, Natural Rights, and the Public Order.”
All Valor Institute events are invitation only, and we regularly invite people from our interest list to join us. Please fill out the brief form below to join the list.
About the Speaker
Fr. Thomas Joseph White is Rector Magnificus of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome. A native of southeastern Georgia, he earned his B.A. at Brown University before pursuing graduate studies in theology at University of Oxford, earning both an M.A. and D.Phil. in Theology. He later completed his S.T.L. degree at the Dominican House of Studies as a member of the Order of PReachers. Fr. White is the author of numerous works, including Wisdom in the Face of Modernity,The Incarnate Lord, The Trinity: On the Nature and Mystery of the One God, and Contemplation and the Cross. He has edited and co-edited several volumes on Thomism, Christology, and ecumenical theology, and serves as co-editor of the theological journal Nova et Vetera.
Before coming to the Angelicum, Fr. White previously served as Director of the Thomistic Institute in Washington, D.C. In 2011, he was appointed an ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, later serving on its governing council, and in 2023 he was elected President of the Academy of Catholic Theology. His honors include designation as a Distinguished Scholar of the McDonald Agape Foundation, the Charles Cardinal Journet Prize, an honorary doctorate from The Catholic University of America, and the title Master of Sacred Theology, one of the highest academic distinctions in the Dominican Order.
Fr. White’s scholarship focuses on Thomistic metaphysics, systematic theology, Christology, Trinitarian theology, natural theology, and the theological interpretation of modernity. He often places the thought of Thomas Aquinas in dialogue with modern thinkers, including Karl Barth and Friedrich Nietzsche. In both his own writings and institutional service, Fr. White has become a world leader in the renewal of Thomistic philosophy and theology.
Valor Winter Symposium with Dr. D. C. Schindler
The Valor Symposium is a celebration of Valor Education’s work in the world. We know life is best enjoyed in the company of friends who together share in contemplation of the highest things. True celebrations and festivals are not to be understood simply as days without work but instead as days set aside for participating in the ars liberalis – “in the realm of activity that is meaningful in itself."
Dr. D.C. Schindler will be our Keynote Speaker. Dr. Schindler is Professor of Metaphysics and Anthropology at the John Paul II Pontifical Institute. He has published more than a dozen books—including two volumes of a planned trilogy on the nature of freedom with the University of Notre Dame Press and a Robert Spaemann Reader with Oxford University Press—and more than 70 articles and book chapters, and his work has been translated into six languages. He is an editor of the English-language edition of Communio: International Catholic Review, and a board member of The Review of Metaphysics and New Polity: A Journal of Post-Liberal Thought; he is a translator of books and articles from French and German; he is a Fellow of the Institute for Human Ecology at CUA and served on the Executive Council of the American Catholic Philosophical Association; and he has been invited to deliver named annual lectures in a variety of venues, including the Thomas Aquinas Lecture at four universities and colleges, the Bitar Memorial Lecture series at Geneva College, the John Paul II Lecture at the University of Dallas, the Lorenzo Albacete Lecture in New York City, and the Areopagus Lecture at Mars Hill Audio Journal in Charlottesville, VA.
Valor Winter Symposium with Dr. Jonathon Sanford
The Valor Symposium is a celebration of Valor Education’s work in the world. We know life is best enjoyed in the company of friends who together share in contemplation of the highest things. True celebrations and festivals are not to be understood simply as days without work but instead as days set aside for participating in the ars liberalis – “in the realm of activity that is meaningful in itself."
Dr. Jonathan Sanford, President of the University of Dallas, will be the Keynote Speaker for the event. Dr. Sanford began as dean of Constantin College of Liberal Arts in 2015, was elevated to provost in 2018, and became president in 2021. He received his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Buffalo in 2001 and later served at the Franciscan University of Steubenville for 13 years. Dr. Sanford has published widely on foundational questions of moral philosophy. He is the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Hildebrand Project, a member of Legatus, and a Fellow of the Dallas Institute for Humanities and Culture. Dr. Sanford will speak on Plato's Apology, one of the most famous and beautiful works of philosophy in the Western tradition. The title of his address is "Plato's Apology: Our Times and the Call of Philosophy.”
Valor Fall Symposium with Dr. Daniel Coupland
The Valor Symposium is a celebration of Valor Education’s work in the world. We know life is best enjoyed in the company of friends who together share in contemplation of the highest things. True celebrations and festivals are not to be understood simply as days without work but instead as days set aside for participating in the ars liberalis – “in the realm of activity that is meaningful in itself."
Dr. Daniel Coupland will deliver a keynote address, and seminar readings include selections from Vigen Guroian’s Tending the Heart of Virtue and “Beauty and the Beast,” from Andrew Lang’s The Blue Fairy Book.
About our Speaker
Dr. Daniel B. Coupland is dean of the Diana Davis Spencer Graduate School of Classical Education and a professor of education at Hillsdale College, and he formerly served as the dean of faculty at Hillsdale. He earned a B.A. in Spanish from Liberty University, an M.A. in Linguistics from Oakland University, and a Ph.D. in Education from Michigan State University. He began his career in education as a high school teacher. At Hillsdale College, he teaches courses on English grammar and classic children’s literature. In 2013, Dr. Coupland was named Hillsdale College’s “Professor of the Year.” In 2016, he was a Resident Scholar at the C. S. Lewis Study Centre in Oxford, England. In 2017, Dr. Coupland received the Emily Daugherty Award for Teaching Excellence. He is the former editor for the Journal of the Society for Classical Learning. He currently serves as an advisor to the Barney Charter School Initiative, and he sits on the advisory board for the Institute for Classical Education. His research focuses on classic children’s literature and English grammar instruction. He is a co-author of an English grammar curriculum titled Well-Ordered Language: The Curious Child’s Guide to Grammarpublished by Classical Academic Press.
Valor Fall Symposium with Dr. James Matthew Wilson
The Valor Symposium is a celebration of Valor Education’s work in the world. We know life is best enjoyed in the company of friends who together share in contemplation of the highest things. True celebrations and festivals are not to be understood simply as days without work but instead as days set aside for participating in the ars liberalis – “in the realm of activity that is meaningful in itself."
Dr. James Matthew Wilson will deliver a keynote address titled “Tradition, Gratitude, and Poetry.” Seminar readings include T.S. Eliot’s “Tradition and the Individual Talent” and Josef Pieper’s Tradition.
Valor Fall Symposium with Dr. John Finley
The Valor Symposium is a celebration of Valor Education’s work in the world. We know life is best enjoyed in the company of friends who together share in contemplation of the highest things. True celebrations and festivals are not to be understood simply as days without work but instead as days set aside for participating in the ars liberalis – “in the realm of activity that is meaningful in itself."
The Valor’s Institute’s Academic Director, Dr. John Finley, will deliver a keynote address on the topic of friendship.
Valor Winter Symposium with Dr. Benedict Whalen
The Valor Symposium is a celebration of Valor Education’s work in the world. We know life is best enjoyed in the company of friends who together share in contemplation of the highest things. True celebrations and festivals are not to be understood simply as days without work but instead as days set aside for participating in the ars liberalis – “in the realm of activity that is meaningful in itself."
Valor’s Kingfisher Fellow-in-Residence, Dr. Benedict Whalen of Hillsdale College, will deliver a keynote address entitled "Education and Liberty in Shakespeare's The Tempest."