What is the internet doing to us? What is college for? What are the myths and metaphors we live by? These are the questions that William Deresiewicz has been pursuing over the course of his award-winning career. Taking up themes from his most recent essay collection, The End of Solitude, this conversation will consider what it means to be an individual, and how we can sustain our individuality in an age of networks and groups.

[Description Forthcoming]

Monica Guzman

In the last century, three of the seven deadliest plagues in human history have catalyzed change in the ways societies conceive of medicine, research, and the university. Drawing upon the historical record and contemporary data, we will explore how H1N1 and HIV galvanized community involvement in research and rooted medical training in research universities. Today, the ongoing changes catalyzed by COVID-19 are transforming research universities and creating opportunities to advance solidarity by engaging Catholic Social Teaching.

Chief Education Officer, Denver Health & Professor of Psychiatry at University of Colorado

The fantastical fictional land of Narnia, famously reached via a magical wardrobe, has many connections to the world in which its creator C.S. Lewis lived. The influence of Oxford can be seen not only in medieval buildings and towers but also in the literature which Lewis encountered there, through a lifetime’s reading and teaching of classical, medieval and renaissance literature. This talk will examine the role Oxford, its colleges, libraries, chapels, clubs, common rooms and pubs, played in fostering the work of one of the twentieth century’s most influential writers and thinkers. It also takes a fresh look at his extensive involvement in Oxford’s various clubs and societies, including the Coalbiters, the Socratic Club and, of course, the Inklings, whose distinguished members coalesced around him and his great friend, J.R.R. Tolkien.

Simon Horobin, Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Oxford

What does Macbeth have to do with The Lord of the Rings? How does the contemporary obsession with “narrative” relate to the ancient art of story? What is “Christian art” anyway? We’ll take a stab at these questions and more in a far-reaching conversation on all things literary.

Sr. Maria Frassati Jakupcak, Assistant Professor of English, University of St. Thomas, Houston

People often see mathematics as just a set of skills, like doing arithmetic or factoring a quadratic. But they don’t often think of math as relevant for experiencing joy and wonder. Yet math is a deeply human enterprise that can meet basic human longings, such as for beauty and exploration and truth, and can build virtues like persistence, creativity, an expectation of enchantment. In an AI era, skills are less important than the virtues built by a great education. In this talk, Dr. Su will also recount how an incarcerated man—now his friend—has helped him see this more clearly than ever before.

Francis Su, Professor of Mathematics, Harvey Mudd College

How do people find their way through the disorientation of conflict, when fear, uncertainty, and pressure distort everyday judgment? Over decades of fieldwork in war‑torn regions, service with the Department of State, and documenting war crimes, Michael Sullivan (PC ’88) has reflected on how people make sense of extreme circumstances. Drawing on his experiences in Afghanistan, the Balkans, Iraq, and Ukraine, and engaging ideas from Viktor Frankl, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and Admiral Stockdale—who turned to Epictetus during captivity in Hanoi—this conversation reflects on how people orient themselves as reference points fall away.

Michael Sullivan, Attorney and Adjunct Faculty of Justice, Law, and Criminology at American University

The papal encyclical In Praeclara Summorum (1921) celebrates Dante as the ‘disciple of Saint Thomas Aquinas’, and his Commedia as containing a ‘treasure of Catholic teaching.’ By contrast, the French Thomist Étienne Gilson, in 1934, accused Dante of two crimes against Aquinas, and of striking a mortal blow to Thomism. Defending Dante against Gilson’s accusations, (and accusing Gilson, instead, of crimes against Thomism), this talk argues for a new Leonine renaissance of both Thomistic and Dante Studies.

Professor George Corbett, University of St. Andrew’s

What does Macbeth have to do with The Lord of the Rings? How does the contemporary obsession with “narrative” relate to the ancient art of story? What is “Christian art” anyway? We’ll take a stab at these questions and more in a far-reaching conversation on all things literary.

“Rethinking the Atonement: How Early Christians Conceptualized Sacrifice”

Speaker: David Moffitt, Professor of Divinity, St. Andrew’s University

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“Makers by Nature: Art, Hospitality, and Hope”

Speaker: Bruce Herman, painter and author

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“Restoring Healthcare to Women’s Health:

Speaker: Anna Halpine, Founder and CEO of FEMM Health and World Youth Alliance

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“The Three Faces of Alma: Tennessee Williams’ Most Beloved Character Re-examined”

Speaker: Henrey Schvey, Emeritus Professor of Drama, Washington University in St. Louis

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“The Wisdom of a Liberal Arts Education”

Speaker: Jennifer Frey, Professor of Philosophy, University of Tulsa

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“Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity.” Speaker: Paul Kingsnorth, novelist, poet, and essayist

“The Divine Tragi-Comedy: C.S. Lewis on Creation, Crucifixion, & Love”, Speaker: Jahdiel Perez, Assistant Professor of Humanities and Sciences, Villanova University

“Should We Celebrate the Declaration of Independence? Political Authority, Religious Authority, and the American Revolutions of 1776.” Speaker: Vincent Philip Muñoz, Professor of Political Science and Law, University of Notre Dame

What is the purpose of dating? How do we date in today’s culture? What is appropriate for dating versus engagement and marriage? Jackie will share the what’s, how’s, and why’s of dating, sex and marriage in this talk!

Join the Providence College community for a talk by Tom Jeannot, professor of philosophy at Gonzaga University.