Upcoming Events

June 27 – 28, 2025
The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation
303 Pearl St NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504, USA

Join us on Friday, June 27, and Saturday, June 28, 2025, for a very special conference that considers the contemporary prospects for the Anglo-American intellectual conservative tradition.

Inspired by the complementary visions of Russell Kirk and Roger Scruton, this conference explores the humanistic and philosophical foundations of the conservative tradition in the English-speaking world. It also explores the conservative contribution to culture, religion, education, and more. In a time when the intellectual reputation of conservatism is increasingly endangered, the scholarship of Kirk and Scruton can help ground and guide us.

Jeffrey O. Nelson, Ferenc Hörcher, and Daniel Pitt have identified scholars from around the globe and across the United States to address the prospects for the Anglo-American intellectual conservative tradition through the prism of these two iconic and complementary thinkers—and the traditions of thought they represent. These scholars will be joined by some of the most promising members of the rising generation.

Learn more and register for this free conference here.

July 8, 2025
Acton Interns Seminar
Mecosta, Michigan
Speakers: Jeff Polet, Michael Lucchese, Michael Maibach

July 22, 2025
Mackinac Center Interns Seminar
Mecosta, Michigan
Speakers: Ryan Streeter and Lee Trepanier

July 23, 2025

July 24-27, 2025
Mecosta, Michigan
Speakers: David Hein

Join us from July 24 to 27 for a new immersive seminar and masterclass at the Russell Kirk Center on the connection between politics, literature, and the moral imagination. 

Dr. David Hein, the Center’s Distinguished Teaching Fellow and author of our new book, Teaching the Virtues, will guide the discussions, offer lectures, and incorporate writing prompts that he will provide feedback on. This seminar will focus on a careful study of Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men.

The seminar is limited to twelve participants and it will be a competitive process, so acting quickly is advised. Through the generous support of our donors, the Kirk Center will cover all room, board, and material costs. Admitted participants will be responsible for their own travel to Mecosta. You may apply by submitting a letter of interest and your C.V. to Emily Corwin at ecorwin@kirkcenter.org.

August 18-22, 2025
The John Adams Society of Harvard University
Mecosta, Michigan

September 2, 2025 — 7:00 PM

Please join us at 7:00 p.m. on September 2, 2025, for a live virtual lecture, “An Evening with Christopher Dawson: Introducing a Historian of Culture.” Joseph T. Stuart will introduce us to the great British historian of ideas, Christopher Dawson, in an engaging presentation, followed by a Q&A discussion moderated by Darrell Falconburg. This event is free and open to the public upon registration.

Learn more and register for this free lecture here.

October 16-19, 2025
The Fund for American Studies Public Policy Fellows
Mecosta, Michigan

October 23, 2025
The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation
303 Pearl St NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504, USA
Speakers: TBD

November 19, 2025
The National Press Club
Washington, DC

Join us on Wednesday, November 19, as the Russell Kirk Center awards its Richard D. McLellan Prizes for Advancing Free Speech and Expression. The Richard D. McLellan Prizes is a unique educational program administered by the Russell Kirk Center. Its aim is to help reshape the national conversation on issues surrounding the durability and prospects for the American tradition of free speech and expression as guaranteed in the U. S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

Visit this webpage for details and to nominate.

June 24, 2025

June 12-15, 2025
Faulkner University Graduate Seminar
Mecosta, Michigan
Speaker: Jason Jewell

April 22, 2025 
7:00 — 8:00 pm ET

On Tuesday, April 22, at 7 pm, you are invited to join University Bookman Editor Luke Sheahan as he discusses Called to Freedom with Dr. Littlejohn. In Called to Freedom, Littlejohn disentangles the philosophical, political, and theological concepts of freedom to illuminate what the Christian means by freedom, “liberation from the bondage of fear and sin.” Littlejohn begins with the classic Christian understanding of freedom, then turns to the contemporary debates over technology, the market, and religious liberty to demonstrate how a Christian conception of freedom not only may help us navigate our fraught cultural and political times but also provide a compelling vision of living in rightly ordered freedom.

Learn more and register at this link.

April 10-13, 2025
Topic: “The Seduction of Technique and the Peril of Art: Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus and Shakespeare’s Tempest
Hillsdale Collegiate Scholars Seminar
Mecosta, Michigan
Speaker: Eric Hutchinson

April 9, 2025
Calvin University Seminar
Mecosta, Michigan
Speaker: David Urban

March 13-16, 2025
Ciceronian Society Conference
Harrisonburg, VA
Jeffrey O. Nelson Speaking
Darrell Falconburg presenting

Join some staff and many friends of the Russell Kirk Center as we attend the national conference of the Ciceronian Society. Jeffrey O. Nelson, the Executive Director of the Kirk Center, will speak on a panel entitled “Building Places of Intellectual Community.” This panel will be chaired by Joshua Bowman, a former Wilbur Fellow and the Vice President of the Ciceronian Society.

February 27, 2025
The University Bookman
7:00 – 8:00 PM ET

Join University Bookman editor Luke Sheahan on Thursday, February 27 at 7 PM Eastern Time as he discusses with Timothy Carney the perils of the modern family and how our culture has become unfriendly to healthy family life. Carney is the author of Family Unfriendly: How Our Culture Made Raising Kids Much Harder Than It Needs to Be.

Learn more and register at this link.

February 4 – 25, 2025
The School of Conservative Studies
Online, Tuesdays, 7:00 – 8:30 PM ET
Total Class Sessions: 4

Join two of the nation’s foremost Burke scholars, Ian Crowe and Gregory Collins, as they lead a virtual four-week seminar on Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France. This is a pilot seminar offered in anticipation of the official launch of the Russell Kirk Center’s School of Conservative Studies in the Fall of 2025. This online seminar is available to the first 35 registrants. Those who register after the first 35 spots have been filled will be placed on a waitlist. Email any questions to dfalconburg@kirkcenter.org.

Learn more and register at this link.

February 3, 2025
Burke to Buckley Fellowship Program, NRI
Miami, FL
Jeffrey O. Nelson Speaking

Jeffrey O. Nelson will be a speaker for the popular fellowship program of the National Review Institute. The in-person Burke to Buckley Fellowship Program follows a syllabus that fosters a rigorous examination of conservative principles and how they apply to the issues of the day. Incorporating readings from Burke to Buckley, the syllabus focuses on the foundations of conservative thought.

January 14, 2025
7:00 – 8:00 pm ET

We invite you to join Tim Goeglein and University Bookman editor Luke Sheahan for the first Book Gallery episode of the new year. In Stumbling Toward Utopia: How the 1960s Turned Into a National Nightmare and How We Can Revive the American Dream, Goeglein argues that we can return to America’s core values of personal responsibility, respect for life, sexual restraint, and patriotism—and he shows us how. Goeglein’s book lays out a framework for rejecting the destructive cultural shifts of the last century that have wrought so much personal and social destruction.

Learn more and register at this link.

December 12-15, 2024
McConnell Center Scholars Seminar
Discussion Leader: Dr. Gary Gregg, Director of the McConnell Center at the University of Louisville
Russell Kirk Center, Mecosta, MI

December 5, 2024
Join us on Thursday, December 5, as the Russell Kirk Center awards its Inaugural Richard D. McLellan Prizes for Advancing Free Speech and Expression. Reception begins at 6:00 pm with the program to follow.
Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, Grand Rapids, MI
Register at this link. 

November 21, 2024
This series is a joint initiative of the Kirk Center and the Chesterton Academy.
Topic: “Christopher Dawson and Christian Culture”
Speaker: Dr. Joseph Stuart, professor of History at the University of Mary
St. Lucy’s Croatian Catholic Church Hall, Troy, MI

Register at this link.

November 19, 2024
Join University Bookman editor Luke Sheahan at 7 pm as he discusses the history and basis of freedom of speech with Jonathan Turley, J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University Law School and author of The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.

Register at this link.

November 13, 2024
The University Bookman and friends will hold a memorial lecture in honor of Gerald Russello, longtime editor of the Bookman.
Topic: “The Conservative Paradox: Mourning and Gratitude”
Speaker: R. R. Reno, editor of First Things
Reception begins at 6 pm with lecture to follow.

Fordham University Law School
Lincoln Center, Tiered Lecture Hall 4-02
150 West 62nd Street, New York, New York 10023
Register at this link.

November 7-10, 2024
Hillsdale Collegiate Scholars Seminar
Topic: “Lucretius, On the Nature of the Universe”
Discussion Leader: Professor Eric Hutchinson, Chairman of the Collegiate Scholars Program
Russell Kirk Center, Mecosta, Michigan

October 29, 2024, 7 pm (EST)
Luke Sheahan, editor of the University Bookman, with discuss Russell Kirk’s fiction with James Panero, executive editor of the New Criterion, and Adam Simon, Hollywood screenwriter. Kirk was an award-winning author of supernatural tales imbued with gothic imagination. What influenced Kirk’s interest and understanding of the ghostly tale? What might all this have to do with traditional conservatism? This discussion will range from masters of the genre of the ghostly tale to themes of morality and judgment in stories of the uncanny.

Register with this link. 

October 22, 2024, 7 pm (EST)
Neither an ideology nor a political program, conservatism is an adjective chiefly — a state of mind, a type of character, and a way of looking at the civil social order. This disposition has been re-expressed in new ways and new circumstances by some of the best men of letters and public figures of the past few centuries. This School of Conservative Studies webinar helps to clarify the meaning of the word “conservative” by unpacking the “ten conservative principles” outlined by Russell Kirk in The Politics of Prudence.

Speaker: Dr. Jason Jewell
Register with this link. 

October 17-20, 2024
TFAS Fellows Seminar
Discussion Leaders: Dr. David Corey (Baylor University) and Dr. Bradley Birzer (Hillsdale College)
Russell Kirk Center, Mecosta, MI

October 6, 2024
The Front Porch Republic
Library Tour by Cecilia Kirk Nelson
Talk by Jeffrey O. Nelson
Russell Kirk Center, Mecosta, MI

October 4, 2024
Kairos Homeschool Debate Group
Library Tour & Talk by Darrell Falconburg
Russell Kirk Center, Mecosta, MI

September 23, 2024
Join the editor of The University Bookman, Luke Sheahan, on Monday, September 23, at 7 pm, as he discusses Hannah’s Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth with Catherine Pakaluk.

Register for this Book Gallery webinar using the following link.

August 1 – 4, 2024
This program brings together two themes central to the life and work of Russell Kirk: character and composition. Participants will be led by the Russell Kirk Center’s Distinguished Teaching Fellow, David Hein. To apply, send a personal statement and resume to ecorwin@kirkcenter.org.
Russell Kirk Center, Mecosta, MI

July 16, 2024
Mackinac Center Interns
Russell Kirk Center, Mecosta, MI

July 9, 2024
Acton Institute Interns
Russell Kirk Center, Mecosta, MI

June 20-21, 2024
Michigan legislators
Russell Kirk Center, Mecosta, MI

June 18, 7:00 – 8:00 pm
Join the editor of The University Bookman, Luke C. Sheahan, on Tuesday, June 18 at 7 pm, as he discusses Liberty Lost: The Rise and Demise of Voluntary Association in America Since Its Founding with Robert E. Wright. Register at this link.

April 19, 2:00 – 3:00 pm
Featured speaker: Dr. Hiro Aida, journalist and translator
Roundtable discussion with Jeff Nelson, Annette Kirk, and Luke Sheahan
Tampa, FL
Read Dr. Aida’s talk on “Russell Kirk’s Fascination with Japan” here.

April 21, 12:00 – 1:30 pm
Featured speaker: Dr. Hiro Aida, journalist and translator
Roundtable discussion with George Nash, Jeff Nelson, and Bill McClay
Tampa, FL
To attend, contact ecorwin@kirkcenter.org

May 19 – 20
This conference addresses the work of the philosopher Sir Roger Scruton from an American perspective. The event presents an array of perspectives on the various avenues of his writings, what they might mean for American culture, and their potential future influence on the nation. Speakers will discuss topics such as the arts, religion, popular culture, and ethics as they explore Sir Roger’s philosophies, persona, and legacy. The conference honors his memory and engages with his prominence as a cultural thinker.
Presented by The Center for American Culture and Ideas, co-sponsored by the Kirk Center.
Georgetown University and AEI, Washington, D.C.
The full schedule, speakers’ biographies, and registration information is available at this link. 

April 11 – 14, 2024
Hillsdale Collegiate Scholars seminar
Russell Kirk Center, Mecosta, MI

April 10, 2024
Calvin University students seminar
Russell Kirk Center, Mecosta, MI

April 6, 2024, 8:30 – 10:00 am 
Darrell Falconburg, Academic Program Officer of the Russell Kirk Center
Henry Institute Symposium on Religion and the Public Life
Prince Conference Center, Calvin University, Grand Rapids, MI
Register here. 

February 27, 7:00 p.m.
“Nations, Markets, Families, and the Challenge of China: A Conversation with Dr. Samuel Gregg”
The Oak Room in the Prince Conference Center, Calvin University
Open to the public.

February 26, 7:00 p.m.
“Nations, Markets, Families, and the Challenge of China: A Conversation with Dr. Samuel Gregg”
Winants Auditorium in Graves Hall, Hope College, Holland, MI
Open to the public.

February 22, 5:30 p.m.
“The Starry Pinnacle of the Commonplace: How to Restore the Normal to an Abnormal World”
Dale Ahlquist, President of the Society of G.K. Chesterton 
St. Lucy’s Croatian Catholic Church Hall, Troy, MI
This series is a joint initiative of the Kirk Center and the Chesterton Academy. Tickets may be reserved here. 

December 5, 6:00 p.m.
In celebration of the 70th anniversary of The Conservative Mind, the Kirk Center will hold a special evening event with a panel of rising conservative leaders who adapt the best of the conservative tradition to contemporary circumstances. In addition, the Kirk Center will announce the launch of two significant new programs.
The Mayflower Hotel’s Grand Ballroom, Washington, DC

November 20 – 21
Michigan legislators
The Kirk Center, Mecosta, MI

November 15, 6:00 p.m.
The University Bookman and friends will hold a memorial lecture in honor of Gerald Russello, longtime editor of the University Bookman.  Dermot Quinn, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at Seton Hall University, will speak on “Gerald Russello and the Art of Memory.” Dr. Quinn and Gerald served together on the board of the G. K. Chesterton Institute for Faith and Culture, sharing a love of all things Chestertonian. A reception with drinks and hors d’oeuvers will follow. 
Fordham University’s Lincoln Campus, New York City
All are invited. Sign up here.

November 18
The Kirk Center, Mecosta, MI

November 9 – 12
Hillsdale College students
The Kirk Center, Mecosta, MI

November 14, 7 p.m. EST
Luke Sheahan is joined by Alexandra Hudson to discuss her new book The Soul of Civility: Timeless Principles to Heal Society and Ourselves.
Register here for this webinar.

November 2 – 5
The Fund for American Studies Public Policy Fellows
The Kirk Center, Mecosta, MI

October 25, 7:00 p.m. EST
Join James Panero, executive editor of The New Criterion, and Adam Simon, Hollywood screenwriter, for a conversation about Russell Kirk’s eerie novel Old House of Fear. Kirk was an award-winning writer of fiction and this gothic mystery set in 20th century Scotland outsold all his other books combined. Panero will explore Kirk’s literary influences, conservative sensibility, and other themes during this book-club style episode. Participants are encouraged to read the most recent edition (Criterion Books, 2019).
Register here for this webinar. 

September 19, 7 p.m. EDT
Join Luke Sheahan, editor of the University Bookman, for a discussion of The Classical and Christian Origins of American Politics with the authors, Justin Dyer and Kody Cooper. 
Register at this link to join this live webinar. 

August 18 – 22, 2023
Students from the John Adams Society of Harvard University
The Kirk Center, Mecosta, MI

August 9, 1:00 p.m. EDT
The editors of the University Bookman will be joined by Eduard Habsburg, Ambassador of Hungary to the Holy See and the Sovereign Order of Malta, for a discussion of his new book The Habsburg Way. 
A video recording is available on the University Bookman homepage.

July 20 – 23, 2023
This new program brings together two themes central to the life and work of Russell Kirk: character and composition. Over the course of three days, participants will deepen their acquaintance with the chief habits of moral excellence, both the cardinal virtues and the theological virtues. They will explore these virtues in direct relation to American education and effective, ethical prose, guided by the Kirk Center’s Distinguished Teaching Fellow, David Hein.
The Kirk Center, Mecosta, MI