Symposium Features Dazzling Duo Speakers

Odysseus and Penelope, Romeo and Juliet, Mark Antony and Cleopatra. All classical power couples who stood the test of time individually but made their mark on history as pairs. In this same vein, we are thrilled to announce two husband-and-wife teams that are part of our great lineup of impactful speakers at the National Symposium for Classical Education. One of our keynote speakers, Jennifer Frey will be joined at the symposium by her husband, Christopher Frey, who will also be presenting. David Clayton and his wife, Margarita Mooney Clayton will each be presenting at their respective sessions.

These successful twosomes all work within the arena of higher education and individually bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the classical education discussion. While many of us struggle to maintain a work-life balance, these two dynamic duos have literally married the two worlds of their personal life and professional life.

We recently featured Symposium Keynote Speaker Jennifer Frey, who serves as the Inaugural dean of the Honors College at the University of Tulsa.

Serving at the same university as the McFalin Professor of Philosophy is her husband, Christopher Frey. He works primarily on the history of ancient Greek philosophy, with an emphasis on Aristotle’s natural philosophy and metaphysics. He is writing a book entitled “The Principle of Life: Aristotelian Souls in an Inanimate World.” It concerns the distinction between the animate and the inanimate, the unity of living organisms, nutrition, birth, death and, more generally, what one’s metaphysical worldview looks like if one takes life to be central.

David Clayton is the Provost and Professor of Pontifex University and his wife, Margarita Mooney Clayton serves as an associate professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and Executive Director at Scala Foundation.

Her most recent books with Cluny Media “The Wounds of Beauty: Seven Dialogues on Art and Education” (2022) and “The Love of Learning: Seven Dialogues on the Liberal Arts” (2021), grew out of her decades of experience as a teacher and scholar. He is an internationally known artist, teacher, writer, and broadcaster.

He created the unique Master of Sacred Arts program at Pontifex, teaching online courses that present a Catholic understanding of culture through subjects on the mathematics of beauty, art history, and traditions in sacred art. After studying math, physics and metallurgy at Oxford University and Michigan Tech University, he pursued his passion for art. He has trained as an iconographer in the Byzantine tradition. He also studied the academic method of naturalistic painting and drawing in Florence, Italy. He moved to the US from his native England in 2009 to be Artist-in-Residence at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in New Hampshire, where many of his works of art hang in the chapel.

Consider bringing your significant other and come to see this dream team of doublets on March 20-22, 2024 at the Phoenix Convention Center, where they will each be giving their unique talks during the National Symposium for Classical Education. Registration is NOW LIVE!

REGISTER HERE

This year’s Symposium will focus on renewing the Great Conversation concerning great works and perennial ideas. This year we will underscore the importance of teaching and modeling the conversations that lead to insight–among colleagues, between teachers and students, with families, and across our communities. At a time when our society most needs genuine dialogue, classical schools provide a sanctuary of genuine civility. Join us to discover how classical education embodies the good conversations, providing both the means and the model for a more civil society.

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