The Providence College Humanities Forum Fall 2026

Is it a Sin to Dominate Conversation?

Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P.

Assistant Professor of Dogmatic and Moral Theology at the Dominican House of Studies

Friday, September 11 at 4 p.m. Ruane Center for the Humanities 105

Ever been in a conversation where someone talks way too much. Or way too little? Is it just a matter of different conversational styles? Or is it something we’re responsible for? Join Fr. Gregory Pine to learn about the purpose of speech, the goal of conversation, and how to avoid boring, blathering, or otherwise biffing it. 

The Use and Abuse of the Declaration in the Name of the Constitution

Matthew Franck

Senior Fellow at the Witherspoon Institute

Friday, September 18 at 3:30 p.m.
Ruane Center for the Humanities 105

We celebrate the birth of our country on July 4, 1776, the date of the Declaration of Independence. But now Constitution Day has come around. What is the relationship between these two documents? How should we interpret the Constitution, or try to advance its principles, in light of the Declaration?And how has this been done well and badly in our history, by politicians, judges, and others? 

A Black American Composer and a ‘Lost’ French Opera

Candace Bailey

Professor of Music, North Carolina Central University

Friday, September 25 at 3:30 p.m.
Ruane Center for the Humanities 105

As a Black composer in the United States and France, Edmond Dédé (1827-1901) had always been the Other throughout his life, and when a man in that position wrote an opera about Otherness, it is no surprise that he should choose to expose the fallacy of how western musical establishments viewed and treated him. In his only opera,  Morgiane, the composer introduces the Arabs as Self and the Persians as Other and, in the end, deconstructs the Whiteness-centered hierarchy of morality based on race. 

Dédé’s notion of identity had been fashioned in relation to his lived experiences in postcolonial New Orleans, in postwar Mexico, and in France, as well as his travels to Algiers, Portugal, and Marseilles. He could authoritatively ask who is Self and who is Other in his immediate world of 1880s Bordeaux. In Morgiane, Dédé confronts the naïve bifurcation of white and black, of African and European, and resists hegemonic power by writing an opera in the style of a white French composer and infusing it with characteristics of his own multiracial experiences. 

J.R.R. Tolkien and the Stained Imagination

a conversation with David O’Connor

Professor of Philosophy and Classics at the University of Notre Dame

Friday, October 2 at 3:30 p.m.
Ruane Center for the Humanities 105

Ritual Isolation: Digital Culture and the Essence of Being Human

Christopher Baglow

Professor of the Practice, Theology at the University of Notre Dame

Friday, October 16 at 3:30 p.m.
Ruane Center for the Humanities 105

Evolutionary psychology has revealed that ritual behavior in animals played an essential part in the evolutionary history of human beings. It is at the root of everything we do. In the liturgy, grace builds on nature, turning the evolutionary advantage of human ritual behavior into the forming of the supernatural cooperative community that is the Mystical Body of Christ. After a brief survey of the evolution of ritual, Chris Baglow will explore the link between disaffiliation (on the one hand) and radical traditionalism (on the other) as opposite reactions among young people to the isolation that is intrinsic to digital culture, and the attunement of the body in liturgical prayer as a pressing need of the present ecclesial moment.

Happiness in a Palliative Age

a conversation with R.J. Snell

Academic Director for the Witherspoon Institute

Friday, October 23 at 3:30 p.m.
Ruane Center for the Humanities 105

Aslan’s Mother: Brilliance and Blind Spots in C.S. Lewis’s Theology of Love

Jason Lepojärvi

C.S. Lewis Associate Professor of Theology & Literature at George Fox University

Friday, October 30 at 3:30 p.m.
Ruane Center for the Humanities 105

When we give to people what is due to God, our love becomes a form of idolatry. But what exactly is the difference between proper human love, veneration, worship, and idolatry? C.S. Lewis develops two brilliant principles of love in his theological works and illustrates them in this literary works—but, curiously, he does not apply them consistently.

What Should Catholics Think of The Chosen

a panel discussion

Friday, November 6 at 3:30 p.m.
Ruane Center for the Humanities 105

Since its release in 2019, the multi-series television show The Chosen has received wide popular acclaim for its dramatic portrayal of the ministry of Jesus and his closest disciples and for its high cinematic quality. Written and directed by evangelical Protestants, the show nonetheless strives to appeal to all Christian confessions, with a Catholic priest serving on its board of theological advisors. But the show is not without its detractors, including some Catholics who, among other things, object to the way the show “makes real,” humanly speaking, Jesus and the apostles, such as giving Jesus a sense of humor and, according to them, making him overly relatable to a contemporary audience. On the other hand, many Catholics, including professional theologians, consider themselves “fans” of the show, even if they have some criticisms. All of which leads to ask: what are Catholics to think of The Chosen? Is it “Catholic friendly” or is it problematic from a Catholic point of view? The Humanities Forum panel discussion, which will kick off a conference devoted to this topic and which will extend throughout the entire day on Saturday, November 7 (a week before the release of season six), will seek to answer these questions in an informed and engaging manner. The panelists will be among the presenters of the conference, all of whom are Catholic theologians who overall appreciate the show for its biblical and artistic achievement.

The Genesis of Gender

Abigail Favale

Professor of the Practice, Theology & Literature at the University of Notre Dame

Friday, November 13 at 3:30 p.m.
Ruane Center for the Humanities 105

The question of gender—who we are as men and women—has never been more pressing, or more misunderstood.

Weaving personal experience with expert knowledge, Dr. Abigail Favale provides an in-depth yet accessible account of the gender paradigm: a framework for understanding reality and identity that has recently risen to prominence. Favale traces the genealogy of gender to its origins in feminism and postmodern thought, describing how gender has come to eclipse sex, and how that shift is reshaping language, law, medicine, sexuality, and our own self-perceptions.

Doctors Helping Patients to Die: What Could Possibly Go Wrong? 

Farr Curlin

Professor of Medical Humanities at Duke University

Friday, November 20 at 3:30 p.m.
Ruane Center for the Humanities 105

“Medical aid in dying” (MAiD) promises to help patients to die on their own terms, free from unwanted suffering. In this talk, Dr. Farr Curlin will consider and critique the movement for doctor-assisted death. He’ll argue that MAiD depreciates and undermines patience with human suffering and limitations, that it corrupts and erodes public trust in the medical profession, and that it purchases yet another entitlement for the privileged at the cost of solidarity with those made vulnerable by illness and disability. Dr. Curlin will propose how medical practitioners can and should help patients who are dying, while they must resist helping patients to die.   

“Should Christians Acquiesce to the Colonization of Europe?”

Matthew Crawford

Author

Friday, December 11 at 3:30 p.m.
Ruane Center for the Humanities 105

In the decades since World War II, Christian thought has neglected the goods that are secured by the political form of the bounded nation. This has led to a deepening political crisis in Europe. How should Christians think about mass immigration? What are the limits of hospitality? Is Christian love distinguishable from secular humanitarianism? These questions point to a further issue: do the newly assertive, distinctly masculine energies of the new Right properly have a place in Christian thought and practice? 

A Conversation with Harvey Mansfield

William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Government, Emeritus, at Harvard University

Friday, December 11 at 3:30 p.m.
Ruane Center for the Humanities 105