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Ralston College Welcomes a New Provost

News 20th August 2025

As the College welcomes its fourth cohort to Samos, Greece, to begin its MA program in the Humanities, a new academic appointment comes into effect. Professor Michael Hurley, who has served three years as Provost of the College, and supported the Ralston project for many years before that, is moving on from this position to focus on fresh challenges in his own career. He is replaced by Dr David Butterfield, Ralston College’s Professor of Latin.

Reflecting on his time in this post, Professor Hurley writes:

“It has been an immense privilege to serve as Provost of Ralston College. I had the pleasure of being involved in the College’s foundational discussions on curriculum, vision, and faculty recruitment, and it has been correspondingly thrilling to watch Ralston come into being: slowly, slowly, then in a great rush and riot. Now that our third cohort of students has graduated, and we have received the transformatively good news of our candidacy for accreditation from the New England Commission of Higher Education, the moment feels right to step back.“

As I hand over the Provostial reins and take up the honour of becoming a Ralston Fellow—a role that will allow me to continue supporting the College’s academic mission for years to come—I also look ahead to new undertakings in Cambridge and farther afield. This summer, I will be an International Visiting Fellow at Australian Catholic University, where I will contribute to teaching across the curriculum of its Western Civilisation Program and deliver their annual Aletheia Lecture.

“I remain deeply grateful for the opportunity to have been part of this new and needful development in university education, and I will follow with great interest Ralston’s continued flourishing.”

 

In 2024, Dr Butterfield resigned his lectureship at the University of Cambridge in order to join Ralston College. He oversaw the launch of the pilot Latin program that year, and has since been helping the College in its academic and institutional growth. On taking up this new position, Dr Butterfield says:

“I am delighted to take up the role of Provost at such an exciting time in the College’s existence. The Ralston faculty is an immense pool of talent, remarkable in range and rare in seriousness, and I could not be prouder to be working among them. It is as exciting as it is refreshing to be part of a team so committed to the shared vision of enriching lives through the humanities.

As Ralston continues its journey towards full accreditation, I look forward to helping steward the College toward that goal and, more importantly, into the ambitious and inspiring future for which it yearns. Χαλεπὰ τὰ καλά.”

Dr Stephen Blackwood, President of the College, recorded his thanks to Professor Hurley:

"Ralston has never had a better friend, even with so many stalwart supporters, than Dr Michael Hurley. His early involvement, when few thought such an undertaking possible, was vital; his leadership through the launch and first years of the College, essential. One could hardly list the things he has touched or guided or inspired, but most of all, he has been relentless in keeping us true to the College's highest ideals: to build something positive, not reactionary, in the pursuit of truth, freedom, beauty, and fellowship; to avoid dogmatism and reductionism of any kind; to hold standards of excellence; and to defend above all the human good—in all its complexity, wonder, and adventure.“

The whole College joins me in expressing deep gratitude to Professor Hurley and best wishes for his own next steps, even as we look forward to his remaining with us as a Fellow.”

About his replacement as Provost, he added:

“We are thrilled to have found a very worthy successor to Dr Hurley in Dr David Butterfield, who now takes up the role of Provost. Dr Butterfield is a man of astonishing ability, in both depth and breadth, both as a scholar and as a man. His two decades at Cambridge, where he taught some of the brightest minds of a generation and fostered the college life that Ralston seeks to embody, combined with his exacting standards of excellence, position him extremely well to take up the mantle of overseeing Ralston's academic programs as we look to expand those in a bright future.”

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