Veritatis Splendor
Our Speakers Series will return in the 2025-26 school with six new speakers.
Dr. Stephen Smith
Sir Thomas More
Tuesday, September 30, 2025 in the Summit Park Symposium Room
The event will begin at 6:00 PM in the Summit Park lobby followed by Dr. Smith’s talk at 7:00 PM in the Summit Park Symposium Room.
Recovering the Great American Story
- Why do we need to know our history?
- What is unique about historical knowledge? How is it different from other ways of knowing?
- What does it mean to think of history as a story?
- Why should a historian be a recording angel, rather than a hanging judge?
- Why is history the most humanizing of subjects?
About the Speaker
Dr. Stephen Smith is Temple Chair of English Literature and Dean of Humanities at Hillsdale College. He teaches literature, with a focus on the works of Thomas More, William Shakespeare, John Milton, and Dante. Following Dante’s lead, he hopes to share “a little spark” of real fire and fresh desire with others through his teaching. He wants his students to begin a lifelong friendship with these great authors, who have so much wit and solid wisdom to offer us on living well and happily, especially in stormy times.
With Gerard Wegemer, Dr. Smith serves as co-director of the Center for Thomas More Studies and co-editor of The Essential Works of Thomas More (Yale University Press, 2020). In addition to essays and reviews in scholarly journals, he has published on More, Shakespeare, and Dante in The Wall Street Journal. He has lectured widely across the country on the importance of the humanities and the benefits of studying great literature with wonder, care, and delight. His online classes on Shakespeare and Dante have been enjoyed by students old and new around the US and globe, though he’s not sure if his own dear mother has watched them yet. Steve and his wife, Laura, live in Hillsdale with their four children, Will, Nicholas, Thomas, and Grace – and a dog named Rosie.
About the Veritatis Splendor Speakers Series
Through the Veritatis Splendor Speakers Series (Latin for “Splendor of Truth”), CLASSICAL will be inviting nationally recognized speakers to address thought-provoking topics related to our mission of promoting moral character and civic virtue through a content-rich education in the classical liberal arts and sciences. The aim of the speaker series is not merely to deepen the knowledge and involvement of CLASSICAL’s immediate school community, but also to educate and engage the community at large.
2025-26 Veritatis Splendor Speakers
September 30, 2025 – Dr. Stephen Smith
Previous Veritatis Splendor Speakers
Christopher Rufo – Restoring Integrity to Public Education
Dr. Wilfred McClay – Recovering the Great American Story
Dr. Jordan Wales – Artificial Intelligence, the Human Person, and Education
Dr. Dwight Lindley – A Christmas Carol to Re-Enchant the World
Dr. David Whalen – Character and Virtue: Learning to Love What’s Right
Dr. Stephen Smith – Love and Fire: Education of Soul in Dante’s Divine Comedy
Dr. Leonard Sax – Tik Tok Ate My Daughter, and My Son Won’t Stop Playing Video Games
Dr. Larry Arnn – The Renaissance of American Classical Education
Dr. Jeffrey Lehman – Quadrivial Pursuits: Why Classical Education Needs the Quadrivium
Dr. Stephen Smith – Why Everyone Should Study Shakespeare
Mr. Andrew Zwerneman – The Confidence of Culture: Seeing What the West Frees us to See
Mr. Patrick Whalen – The Role of the Body in Education
Dr. Daniel Coupland – Education and the Cultivation of the Moral Imagination
Mr. Antonin Scalia – What My Grandfather Taught Me About the Constitution
Location: Sojourner Truth Auditorium – 170 Siebenthaler Ave. Cincinnati, OH 45215