The ISI Honors Program introduces students to Russell Kirk’s masterpiece, The Roots of American Order, a masterful account of the cities and traditions that gave life to Western Civilization. Honors Scholars embark on a journey from Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, London, and to Philadelphia—the five cities Kirk identifies that shape the American order—to explore the principles that hold America together and the forces that can tear it apart.
Graduates of the ISI Honors Program will join an exclusive fellowship of conservative leaders who are equipped and empowered to remedy what ails American institutions today. We aim to cultivate more than influential policymakers; ISI shapes prudent, principled statesmen and women who bring a clear-eyed historical sensibility to their decision-making. Our Honors Fellows go on to shape culture through virtuous leadership in the wide variety of careers they pursue.
The ISI Honors Program is not merely an informational presentation; it is an introduction into a lifelong community of like-minded people. Our top-tier faculty members and speakers join students for the entire week, passing on knowledge and guidance through lectures and discussion groups, and serving as mentors to help to further students’ academic and professional careers.
But the Honors experience does not end after the week concludes. Honors scholars join an impressive network of students, young professionals, intellectual heavyweights, industry leaders and more and will be plugged in to this network through exclusive invites. As a capstone to the academic year, Honors scholars are invited to attend ISI’s annual Homecoming weekend at our campus where they will be part of the larger ISI community and make valuable connections.
If you are a hardworking, dedicated, undergraduate conservative leader as of Spring 2025, you are encouraged to apply to the 2025 ISI Honors Program. Applications are due by February 1, 2025. We look forward to reviewing your application!
Andrew Willard Jones
Andrew Willard Jones holds a PhD in Medieval History from Saint Louis University with a focus on the Church of the High Middle Ages. Jones’s work is primarily concerned with historical political theology and with the reconciliation of the post-modern...
Casey J. Wheatland
Casey J. Wheatland is a lecturer in political science at Texas State University where he teaches courses on American government, political philosophy, and public policy. He received his Ph.D. from Hillsdale College in the Spring of 2022 after writing a dissertation...
Dan McCarthy
Daniel McCarthy is the editor of Modern Age: A Conservative Review and a contributing editor of The American Conservative. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, USA Today, the Spectator, the National Interest, Reason, and many other publications. Outside of journalism he has worked as internet...
Danilo Petranovich
Dr. Petranovich is the Director of the Abigail Adams Institute, an independent scholarly center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that works with intellectually ambitious college and graduate students in the Boston area. Previously, Dr. Petranovich taught political science and courses in the...
Don Westblade
Don Westblade was born and raised in Colorado and reached Michigan by way of an educational path through Massachusetts, California, and Connecticut, plus a two-year sojourn in Germany and France for language study. He met his South Dakota wife, Joni,...
Fr. James Doran
Fr. James Doran completed his theological studies and priestly formation in Switzerland, where he was ordained to the priesthood in 1988. In over thirty-five years of priesthood, Father Doran has labored in priestly ministry on four different continents, primarily at...
Khalil M. Habib
Khalil Habib is Associate Professor of Politics at Hillsdale College, where he teaches political philosophy and American political thought. Dr. Habib has co-edited two books, The Soul of Statesmanship: Shakespeare on Nature, Virtue, and Political Wisdom, and Cosmopolitanism in the Age...
Miles Smith
Miles Smith is a trained historian who attended the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina for his undergraduate degree and later received his Ph.D. from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. His research primarily focuses on the U.S....
Patrick J. Deneen
Patrick J. Deneen holds a B.A. in English literature and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Rutgers University. From 1995-1997 he was Speechwriter and Special Advisor to the Director of the United States Information Agency. From 1997-2005 he was Assistant...
R.J. Snell
R.J. Snell is Editor-in-Chief of Public Discourse and Director of Academic Programs at the Witherspoon Institute. Previously, he was for many years Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Philosophy Program at Eastern University and the Templeton Honors College, where he founded...
Susan Hanssen
Susan Hanssen is associate professor of history at the University of Dallas where she teaches American history on the Texas campus during the school year and the history of Western Civilization on the Rome campus in Italy during the summer....
W. Barksdale Maynard
W. Barksdale Maynard is the author of seven university press books about American history, art, and architecture. His 2021 book Artists of Wyeth Country is a rare, unauthorized biography of Andrew Wyeth that is banned at the Brandywine River Museum...
