The Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization (AHI) is pleased to announce the creation of the Churchill Institute for the Study and Extension of Western Civilization (CI) in Hartford, Connecticut. Created in affiliation with AHI, the Churchill Institute will be directed by Dr. Gregory B. Smith, Professor of Political Science and Philosophy, Trinity College, and will have as its primary mission to encourage, in every way possible, serious teaching, learning and scholarship about Western Civilization, and to promote a vigorous discussion of its preservation and future trajectory.
“We are incredibly pleased to support the creation of the independent Churchill Institute,” said AHI President Richard Erlanger. “We are excited to be able to provide support for Professor Smith in the development of a new affiliate, which will focus on the texts and history of Western Civilization with an eye to understanding its successes, and occasional excesses –a focus comparable with the AHI’s own mission.” “Trinity College, like many other elite liberal arts colleges,” added AHI Charter Fellow Robert Paquette, “is suffering from gross imbalances and excesses that have chilled debate and betrayed the ethos of liberal arts education. I have every confidence that Dr. Smith with the support of concerned Trinity alums can help redress the problem and return Trinity to a more welcoming climate for free enquiry and honest and open debate. The AHI would like to thank in particular the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for their indispensable support in helping make this noble initiative a reality.”
“I would like to thank the AHI for its support in the creation of the Churchill Institute,” said Smith. “Truly liberating education is at stake in our time. It is under attack by fashionable cadres that are taking over our colleges and universities intent upon creating a monologue that first diminishes Western Civilization and then fosters forgetfulness of its very existence under the alleged charge of its uniformity of excess and repression. But this forgetfulness only leads to fragmented individuals incapable of an integrated understanding of themselves, their world and the liberty that is possible only in truly free institutions and with a genuine liberal arts education.” Dr. Smith met with AHI leadership at the recent Carl B. Menges Colloquium at the Turning Stone Resort and announced the creation of CI during the opening ceremonies of the colloquium on 14 April. “Can’t remember a conference, meeting, or get together,” Smith observed, “that I enjoyed more than this weekend.”
Although CI will initially direct its activities to promoting its mission on the campus of Trinity College, it will also engage broader communities of alumni, parents, students, faculty, community leaders, high school and prep school students and their faculty and administrators, and all interested audiences. “CI will also attempt to link up with, support, and offer mutual and reciprocal fructification for like-minded institutions,” Smith added, “by promoting speakers, conferences, student and faculty publications, and other appropriate venues for discussion and dissemination of the broadest and most vigorous appreciation of ideas. By all means possible, CI will attempt to counteract the increasing one-sidedness of contemporary education and its superficial a-historicality.”
Gregory Smith is Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Trinity College. He worked at the State Department and as a Portfolio Manager before turning to teaching. He was a speech writer in both Reagan-Bush campaigns and the first Bush-Quayle campaign, and worked on various senatorial campaigns and the McCain presidential bid. Professor Smith previously taught at Carleton College and at the University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Michigan. Dr. Smith has written dozens of articles and reviews in journals and multiple op-ed pieces. His published books include Nietzsche, Heidegger and the Transition to Postmodernity, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996); Martin Heidegger: Paths Taken, Paths Opened, (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007); and Between Eternities: On the Tradition of Political Philosophy, Past, Present and Future, (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, a division of Rowman and Littlefield, 2008).
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