Faculty

D. T. Sheffler

Ph.D., Philosophy, University of Kentucky
M.A., Classics, University of Kentucky
M.A., Philosophy, University of Kentucky
B.A., Philosophy and Classics, University of Kentucky

Dr. D. T. Sheffler holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy and an M.A. in Classics from the University of Kentucky. He has taught philosophy, Latin, Greek, history, composition, and great books at the college and high school level for 12 years. He writes about Christian Platonism, early Christianity, conservatism, beauty, and Western civilization. His writing has appeared in the American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, Quaestiones Disputatae, Touchstone, The Classical Teacher, and The Imaginative Conservative.

JOSEPH PEARCE

Professor Joseph Pearce is the internationally acclaimed author of many books, which include bestsellers such as The Quest for Shakespeare, Tolkien: Man and Myth, The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde, C.S. Lewis and The Catholic Church, Literary Converts, and Wisdom and Innocence: A Life of G.K. Chesterton. His books have been published and translated into Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, Italian, Korean, Mandarin, Croatian, and Polish.

He has hosted two 13-part television series about Shakespeare on EWTN and has also written and presented documentaries on EWTN on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. He has participated and lectured at a wide variety of international and literary events at major colleges and universities in the U.S., Canada, Britain, Europe, Africa, and South America.

He is editor of the St. Austin Review, series editor of the Ignatius Critical Editions, senior instructor with Homeschool Connections, and senior contributor at the Imaginative Conservative and Crisis Magazine. In 2022, he was awarded the St. John Henry Newman Visiting Chair of Catholic Studies at Thomas More College.

JONATHAN PRICE

Ph.D., Philosophy of Law, Leiden University Law School
M.A., Law, Oxford University
M.A., Theology (Philosophy of Religion), Leiden University
B.A., Philosophy, Dickinson College

Dr. Jonathan Price holds a dual fellowship as the John and Daria Barry Fellow of Pusey House and Pusey Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford, and is a Research Associate of the Program for the Foundations of Law, in Oxford’s Faculty of Law. He is a visiting researcher at the Leiden Law School, where since 2009 he has been teaching philosophy and law topics. He has been teaching similar topics at Oxford since 2011. Before being elected a fellow of St. Cross College, Dr. Price held a junior research fellowship at the Aquinas Institute, Blackfriars, Oxford. He is a DPhil candidate (part-time), reading Law, at Oriel College. Dr. Price has taken degrees in the philosophy of religion at Leiden University and philosophy at Dickinson College (USA), with significant work on Classics and creative writing. Prior to that, he happily passed three years in the Great Books Program at the Templeton Honors College (USA). He is the founding editor of the peer-reviewed journal Politics & Poetics.

tracy lee simmons

M.A., Classics, Oxford University

Professor Tracy Lee Simmons is a writer and journalist who has written widely for the New York Times, The Washington Post, The New York Sun, The Weekly Standard, The New Criterion, Crisis, and the Sewanee Review along with other newspapers and magazines, including the Classical Teacher magazine. He served as associate editor for National Review under William F. Buckley Jr. and is the author of Climbing Parnassus, a bestselling case for classical education in America that won a Choice Award for “Outstanding Academic Title” in 2002. He holds a master’s degree in Classics from Oxford and was the founding director of the Dow Program in American Journalism at Hillsdale College. He was the recipient of the 2005 Paideia Prize award given by the CiRCE Institute for lifetime contribution to classical education.

jAN BENTZ

Ph.D., Philosophy, Roman Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum
M.A., Sacred Art, Architecture, and Liturgy
M.A., Church, Ecumenism, and Religious Studies

Dr. Jan Bentz lectures at Blackfriars’ Studium on History of Modern and Contemporary Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Philosophy of History. He taught Philosophy of Art (Aesthetics) for The Catholic University of America, Rome Campus, History of Medieval Philosophy at Christendom College, Rome Campus, and Apologetics for IES Study Abroad also in Rome. Dr. Bentz’s journalistic career included the production of weekly TV coverage in German and English for EWTN Global; interviews and commentary for Catholic News Agency, Inside the Vatican; and for The Catholic Herald in English and Jüdische Rundschau in German. He has also worked as a freelance docent tour guide in Rome and the Vatican for over six years.

Vigen Guroian

Ph.D, Theology, Drew University
B.A., History, University of Virginia

Dr. Vigen Guroian has been Professor of Religious Studies in Orthodox Christianity at the University of Virginia and Senior Fellow at the Center on Law and Religion at Emory University. He is the author of several books, including Incarnate Love: Essays in Orthodox Ethics, Tending the Heart of Virtue, and Rallying the Really Human Things. His nearly two hundred published articles cover a range of subjects including marriage and family, children’s literature, ecology, gardening, Armenian history and medical ethics.

CAROL REYNOLDS

Ph.D., Music, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
M.M., Music, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
B.A., Music, Hollins College

Dr. Carol Reynolds is a musicologist, pianist, organist, and author. She specializes in Russian, East European, and German cultural history. Dr. Reynolds was a professor of music history for more than 20 years at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. In addition to music, she is well-versed in the history and fine arts of western Europe and Russia. Dr. Reynolds is a Smithsonian Journeys Expert and has led tours through Russia, the Baltic States, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Croatia. She is fluent in Russian and German, and while she lives in North Carolina, she maintains a second home in the Weimar region of Germany. Dr. Reynolds is author of “Discovering Music: 300 Years of Interaction in Western Music, Arts, History, and Culture,” an entertaining DVD-based self-study course for adult and high-school learners, and “Exploring America’s Musical Heritage through Arts, Literature, and History,” a DVD program shot coast-to-coast and featuring 38 artists and specialists.

FRANK RUSSELL

Ph.D., Classics, University of California, Los Angeles
B.A., Classics, Loyola Marymount University

Dr. Frank Russell is Professor of History at Transylvania University, where he teaches history and classics. At Transylvania he has taught classical and medieval history, Greek, and Latin, as well as the school’s common core courses. He has also taught at the University of Mississippi and at Dartmouth College and was an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Auckland. He is a popular and award-winning teacher who has taught courses as diverse as Greek religion, the history of espionage, and classical architecture. His scholarly work has focused on political and military intelligence in the ancient world, and he is currently working on an article on Rhodian surveillance systems in the southeastern Aegean.

Lesley-Anne Williams

Ph.D., Medieval Studies, Medieval Institute, University of Notre Dame
M.A., Medieval Studies, University of Notre Dame
M.Phil., Theology and Religious Studies, University of Cambridge
University Scholars B.A. (Honors), Baylor University

Dr. Lesley-Anne Dyer Williams is a medieval scholar and lover of the liberal arts. She is the Founding Director for the LeTourneau University Liberal Arts Guild and served for seven years as an Associate Professor of Literature and Latin at LeTourneau University. She has taught great books in a variety of institutions, including the Program of Liberal Studies at the University of Notre Dame, the Center for Core Texts and Ideas at the University of Texas at Austin, and the University Scholars program at Baylor University. Her academic research focuses on the history of medieval Platonism, with a special interest in the twelfth century, the relationship between time and eternity, and the development of the quadrivium. Her academic articles address such figures as Plotinus, Augustine, Hilary of Poitiers, Anselm, Bernard of Clairvaux, Peter Abelard, Richard of St. Victor, John Wyclif, and Søren Kierkegaard. She has also published in Christianity Today and First Things.

Thaddeus kozinski

Ph.D., Philosophy, The Catholic University of America
M.A., Humanities/Great Books, St. John’s College
B.S., Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Theology, Villanova University

Dr. Thaddeus Kozinski teaches Political Philosophy, Latin, and Logic at John Adams Academy in Northern California, and great books for Angelicum Academy. Previously he was Academic Dean and Associate Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Wyoming Catholic College. His latest books are Modernity as Apocalypse: Sacred Nihilism and the Counterfeits of Logos and Words, Concepts, Reality: Aristotelian Logic for Teenagers.

JAY WILE

Ph.D., Nuclear Chemistry, University of Rochester
B.S., Chemistry, University of Rochester

Dr. Jay L. Wile has taught at Indiana University, Ball State University, and Anderson University. He has won several awards for excellence in teaching and has published more than 30 articles in peer-reviewed scientific literature, mostly based on the research he did for the National Science Foundation. He is best known for his award-winning K-12 science textbooks, which have been translated into four different languages and are used in private schools and homeschools around the world.

MARTIN COTHRAN

M.A., Christian Apologetics, Simon Greenleaf University (now a part of Trinity University)
B.A., Philosophy and Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara

Professor Martin Cothran is editor of The Classical Teacher magazine and author of Memoria Press’ Traditional Logic, Material Logic, Classical Rhetoric and Lingua Biblica.

He has taught Latin, Logic, and Rhetoric at Highlands Latin School in Louisville, Kentucky and is widely quoted on education and other public policy issues in Reuters News Service, USA Today, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. The Lexington Herald-Leader called him “the master of the thirty-second sound bite,” and the Associated Press has described him as “articulate and relentless.” His expertise on education and public policy has made him the most frequent guest on Kentucky Educational Television’s “Kentucky Tonight,” a statewide weekly public affairs program.

Kyle Janke

M.A., English Literature, Eastern Michigan University
B.A., English, Hillsdale College

Professor Kyle Janke teaches Literature and Art History at Highlands Latin School in Louisville, KY. He is the author of A Classical History of Art, a curriculum published through Memoria Press. This seminal work provides a comprehensive account of the evolution of Western art over 5,000 years, emphasizing the primacy of classical values in the domains of sculpture, architecture, and painting.

BEAU WESTON

Ph.D., Sociology, Yale University
M.A.R., Ethics, Yale Divinity School
M.Phil., Sociology, Yale University
M.A., Sociology, Yale University
B.A., Swarthmore College

Dr. William Weston is Van Winkle Professor of Sociology at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky where he has taught since 1990. He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and winner of the Bramson Prize in Sociology. He is a two-time winner of the Kirk Award for Excellence in Teaching at Centre College. He has written numerous books and articles on the family, religion, and sociology and on issues related specifically to the Presbyterian Church. His most recent book is on the sociology of Louisville, Kentucky neighborhoods.

PAUL SALAMANCA

J.D., Boston College
B.A., History, Dartmouth College

Professor Paul Salamanca served as a law clerk to Judge David H. Souter of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and subsequently clerked for Justice Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court. He practiced law with the firm of Debevoise & Plimpton in New York and was a visiting assistant professor of law at Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans before joining the faculty at the University of Kentucky College of Law. He served with the United States Department of Justice. He writes for many law review journals in the areas of separation of powers, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and privacy.

Leta Sundet

Ph.D., English Literature, University of Dallas
M.A., English Literature, University of Dallas
M.A., Theology and Letters, New Saint Andrews College
B.A., Liberal Arts, New Saint Andrews College

Dr. Leta Sundet teaches English Literature at the University of Dallas. Her research explores narrative surprise in the work of Jane Austen, Isak Dinesen, and Flannery O’Connor. She has published articles on Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, The Brothers Karamazov, and Babette’s Feast.

Jerry Salyer

M.A., Liberal Arts, St. John’s College
B.A., Aeronautics, Miami University

Professor Jerry Salyer is a U.S. Navy veteran who works as a writer and classical educator in Louisville, Kentucky. The editor of Balzac: Three Stories of Christendom, he also contributed a chapter about the French counter-revolution to the volume Aristocratic Souls in Democratic Times. He has taught philosophy and humanities courses for Jefferson Community and Technical College, Eastern Kentucky University, and Bellarmine University.

Thomas Cothran

J.D., University of Kentucky
B.A., Philosophy, University of Kentucky

Professor Thomas Cothran has written on philosophical and theological topics, especially on classical theism, Aristotelian philosophy of mind, and philosophical method. These articles include “The Apologetics of Transcendence” (First Things), “The Sophistic Method?: Dialectic and Eristic in Legal Pedagogy” (Kentucky Law Journal), “Nietzsche and Neo-Scholasticism: The Dangers and Promise of Natural Law” (Anamnesis Journal), and “And This All Men Call God” (Strange Notions).

Brian Lapsa

D.Phil., Classics, University of Oxford (Oriel College)
B.A. & M.A. (Oxon.), Classics, University of Oxford (Brasenose College)
M.A. & M.Phil., Philosophy, Catholic University of Leuven
B.A., History, University of Virginia

Dr. Brian Lapsa is a Classicist working in the history and philosophy of education. His doctoral dissertation was on virtues, vices, and moral exemplars in Late Antiquity. Lapsa has taught Philosophy (Leiden) and Latin and Greek (Oxford’s Faculty of Classics and Oriel College, respectively). He helped launch Oxford Latinitas and the ‘active Latin’ program at Jesus College. He is also the translator of several published works of French philosophy, including by Rémi Brague, and has served as a researcher in Ancient History at the University of Latvia. As Director of UK and European Operations for Memoria Press, Lapsa consults schools and homeschooling families around Europe. His writing has appeared in the Anglophone and Latvian media.