Join us and our partners as we celebrate the centenary of William F. Buckley Jr., who, alongside Russell Kirk, was instrumental in shaping the renaissance of postwar conservative thought. Buckley’s editorial leadership at National Review gave voice to a generation, and his influence endures in our own time.

On Thursday evening, October 23, we will gather for panel discussions at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation in Grand Rapids, Michigan. 

Panel 1: The Role of Education in a Free Society
Katherine Lopez, National Review Institute
Darrell Falconburg, the Russell Kirk Center
George Nash, historian
Moderator: Jeffrey Nelson

Panel 2: Fusionisms, Old and New
Charlie Cooke, National Review Institute
Stephanie Slade, Reason Magazine
Nathan Schlueter, Hillsdale College
Moderator: John Pinheiro, Acton Institute

A special presentation, “Otto von Habsburg and William F. Buckley Jr.: A Friendship and a View from Europe,” will feature remarks by Gergely Prőhle, Director, and Bence Kocsev, Collection Fellow, of the Otto von Habsburg Foundation in Budapest, Hungary.

This event is co-sponsored by the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, National Review Institute, and the Acton Institute, and is free upon registration.

As you may know, the Center’s journal, The University Bookman, seeks to redeem the time by identifying books that diagnose the modern age and point toward the renewal of culture. 

In this spirit, Christopher J. Scalia, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, will join Bookman editor Luke Sheahan for a conversation on 13 Novels Conservatives Will Love (but Probably Haven’t Read). Scalia, a former English professor and widely published scholar, highlights overlooked works from Samuel Johnson and Nathaniel Hawthorne to Willa Cather, P.D. James, and Zora Neale Hurston.

Join us for a Book Gallery on Monday, September 29, at 7 pm EST using the registration button below.

The conference was a great success, with people attending from around the country and the world. Many of them commented on the academic rigor of the panelists and the cheerful spirit of the gathering. One speaker, previously unknown to the Center, remarked:

“This conference was incredibly informative [and] one of the best conferences I have ever attended. It deepened my understanding of Kirk and Scruton, but also of the conservative tradition at large. The presentations were diverse and complementary, highlighting the role of conservatism in culture, religion, and other facets of life. I came out with a significantly stronger sense of the place of conservatism in the modern world. There are very few places where the place of traditional conservatism can be examined in both rigorous and accessible terms. This event, which was opened to the public but brought scholars from around the world together, provided such a forum. The panel on religion was especially memorable for me – reflections on the place of modern science in relation to faith, a theme of paramount importance today.”

We are currently exploring holding a similar conference next summer on a different topic, if funding is obtained.

I hope to see you at one of our upcoming programs. I'll have more of them to tell you about in the coming months.

Yours in the permanent things,

Jeffrey O. Nelson, Ph.D.
Executive Director & CEO
Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal