Brad Birzer
- Delp 403
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“A professor’s job is never to make false idols for our students but to find the excellences within each one, to encourage the honing of unique gifts, and to inspire the rising generations to love through charity.”— Brad Birzer
Faculty Information
Additional Faculty Information for Brad Birzer
Education
B.A., University of Notre Dame, 1990
Ph.D., Indiana University, 1998
Memberships
Co-Founder, The Imaginative Conservative
Visiting Scholar of Conservative Thought, CU-Boulder, 2014-2015
Fellow, Reagan Presidential Library
Fellow, McConnell Center, University of Louisville
Publications
Russell Kirk: American Conservative (2015)
Neil Peart: Cultural (Re)Percussions (2015)
American Cicero: Charles Carroll of Carrollton (2010)
Sanctifying the World: The Augustinian Life and Mind of Christopher Dawson (2007)
J.R.R. Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth (2003)
Recent News
Biography
I was one of those truly odd kids who loved reading from first grade on, and I begged my teachers, starting in fifth grade, to assign research papers. I don’t remember ever not wanting to read, write, and teach. Now that I’m a professor, I believe that the purpose of higher education is to introduce every generation to the greats of the Western tradition and to remind them what it means to be human. To accomplish this goal effectively, every professor needs two things: enthusiasm and continuous learning. Our job is never to make false idols for our students but to find the excellences within each one, to encourage the honing of unique gifts, and to inspire the rising generations to love through charity.
I have been teaching at Hillsdale since 1999. I have stayed because of its mission to teach the Western tradition through culture, literature, and the arts. We also have the finest history department in the English-speaking world; not only is each member of the department dedicated to his or her field, we are also regularly inspired by each other and by our students.
When I’m not teaching, I spend my time reading, writing, hiking, cooking, baking, and playing with my kids.