Renewal and Renaissance: Highlights from Ralston's Symposium

The climax of the day came with Douglas Murray’s lecture. Amid the beautiful, soaring surroundings of Savannah’s Telfair Academy, built in 1818 and opened in 1886 as the first public museum in the South, Mr Murray explored how and why literature not only endures but also inspires in the world. Ranging through Shakespeare, Byron, Gnedich, Auden, Heaney, and Stoppard inter alios, he held the audience rapt by recounting tales of ‘reconstruction’ where individuals or communities have managed to recover, preserve, renew, and transmit the treasures of literature.

Expressing his pleasure to return to Savannah and Ralston College, and building on his recent conversations with members of the Ralston community, Murray shared his optimism about how a love of literature can rebuild and renew a culture collectively. In this intimate and affecting address, he revealed how poetry in particular had played a formative role in his own life and friendships. Mr Murray’s talk was followed by a fascinating array of questions from the floor, exploring the themes of reading, writing, and war—all against the dramatic backdrop of Julian Russell Story's immense work The Black Prince at Crécy (1888).

As part of the moving introduction to his lecture from Stephen Blackwood, President of Ralston College, Kristi Bryson performed Handel’s Lascia ch’io pianga, accompanied on the piano by Ralston alumna and fellow Olivia Jensen. This stunning performance perfectly encapsulated the day’s discussion of finding beauty in a culture that has lost its way. At the evening’s dinner, held in the College’s premises at 26 East Gaston, Mr Murray put into practice his remarks about the importance of memory and recitation: he was one of many guests who gave impromptu recitations of poems learned by heart, before the evening gave over to song, laughter, and fellowship.

The day will live long in the memory of Ralston College.

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Speaker Bios

Samuel Andreyev is a composer, teacher, and commentator whose works have been performed, recorded, and broadcast worldwide. He is a sought-after speaker and educator, with a popular YouTube channel and masterclasses at leading conservatories. Also a poet and photographer, he has lived in France since 2003, with his scores published by Edition Impronta. 

Stephen Blackwood is the founding President of Ralston College and an intellectual with broad interests in philosophy, religion, psychology, and the humanities. His academic work focuses on the human person in ancient and medieval thought, and his book on Boethius was published by Oxford University Press. He has held visiting positions at Harvard, Toronto, and Cambridge, and has co-founded initiatives in education and cancer research. 

David Butterfield is a scholar of Latin literature, specializing in the poetry of the Late Republic and Augustan periods, particularly Lucretius. Before joining Ralston as Professor of Latin and Director of the Latin Program, he spent two decades at the University of Cambridge as a lecturer and Director of Studies in Classics. He is also Literary Editor of The Critic, Contributing Editor of The Spectator, and Editor-in-Chief of Antigone. 

Joseph Conlon specializes in ancient language pedagogy and has taught Latin and Greek as spoken languages at Princeton, the Paideia Institute, and other institutions. His work emphasizes the connection between language, cultural heritage, and humanistic education in the Ciceronian sense. He is the Dean of Graduate Studies at Ralston College and Professor of Classics. 

James Hankins is a professor of history at Harvard University and a renowned scholar of Renaissance intellectual history. He has authored and edited numerous works, including Virtue Politics: Soulcraft and Statecraft in Renaissance Italy, which explores the transformative ideas of humanist thinkers on governance and education. Hankins is also the general editor of The I Tatti Renaissance Library. As part of his commitment to cultural renewal, Hankins contributes to the Golden Thread Initiative at Encounter Books, which seeks to reconnect contemporary readers with the enduring wisdom of the Western intellectual tradition. 

Gregg Hurwitz is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of 24 thrillers, including the Orphan X series, with books published in 33 languages. He has written screenplays, television scripts, and comics for major studios and publishers, including DC, Marvel, and AWA. Passionate about bridging political divides, he has penned op-eds for The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and Salon and others.  

Douglas Murray is a British author and cultural critic known for his sharp analysis of contemporary issues, including identity, ideology, and the future of Western civilization. His books, such as The Madness of Crowds and The War on the West, have been widely acclaimed. A frequent contributor to major publications, he is a sought-after speaker who engages in discussions on pressing societal challenges. 

James Orr is a Fellow of Ralston College and a University Lecturer in Philosophy of Religion at the University of Cambridge. Formerly the McDonald Postdoctoral Fellow in Theology, Ethics, and Public Life at Christ Church, Oxford, he holds a PhD and MPhil in Philosophy of Religion from St John’s College, Cambridge, and a Double First in Literae Humaniores (Classics) from Balliol College, Oxford. Before entering academia, he worked as a lawyer in corporate finance at Freshfields and Sullivan & Cromwell. His research interests span analytic philosophy of religion, continental phenomenology, moral philosophy, and political theology. 

Mari Otsu is a fine arts writer and classical artist with a BA from NYU, a Core Program certificate from Grand Central Atelier, and an MA from Ralston College. As a Ralston Fellow, she studies beauty, form, and creative transformation in Plotinus’ Enneads and its influence on Renaissance art. Passionate about the inner life, she speaks on cultural and psychological challenges facing young women today. 

Jonathan Pageau is a professional icon carver, liturgical artist, and public speaker specializing in traditional symbolism. His work has been commissioned worldwide, exhibited in museums, and widely published. He runs The Symbolic World YouTube channel, with nearly 300,000 subscribers. 

Christian Sottile is an architect, urban designer, and founding principal of Sottile & Sottile, a Savannah-based firm specializing in historic districts. A professor at SCAD (The Savannah College of Art and Design) and former dean of its School of Building Arts, he has led programs in architecture, preservation, and urban design. His firm’s award-winning work has been featured in The New York Times, Architectural Digest, and Preservation Magazine.