{"id":75,"date":"2025-02-26T15:25:20","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T20:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/?p=75"},"modified":"2025-02-26T15:26:38","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T20:26:38","slug":"historic-gift-continues-funding-for-stephenson-institute-for-classical-liberalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/2025\/02\/26\/historic-gift-continues-funding-for-stephenson-institute-for-classical-liberalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic Gift Continues Funding for Stephenson Institute for Classical Liberalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wabash College President Scott Feller has announced a $14.7 million gift that will continue the work of the Stephenson Institute for Classical Liberalism. The gift from Richard J Stephenson ’62, his wife, Dr. Stacie J. Stephenson, and their family, including Christopher ’87 and Jamie Stephenson and Shawn ’98 and Morgan Stephenson, will build on an already robust and successful record of programming that produces scholarship and coordinates educational and research programming in the intellectual tradition of classical liberalism.<\/p>\n

Launched with a $10.6 million gift from the Stephenson family in October 2021, the Institute has become a strong presence on Wabash\u2019s campus through public presentations, workshops, seminars, visiting scholars-in-residence, internships for Wabash students, and summer programming for college students to study critical ideas at the intersection of the liberal arts and classical liberalism.<\/p>\n

\"Richard
Richard J Stephenson ’62, his wife, Dr. Stacie J. Stephenson, (fifth and six from left) and family members at the Stephenson Institute ribbon cutting ceremony in May 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAs one of the premier private colleges in the United States, Wabash is a vibrant institution deeply committed to providing a classical liberal arts education to the young men of our nation,\u201d said President Feller. \u201cWhile we are fast approaching our 200th anniversary, Wabash is also an innovative and dynamic place\u2014preparing our graduates to meet the needs of a pluralistic society. The Stephenson Institute helps us do exactly that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Institute, directed by Dr. Daniel D\u2019Amico, has embraced the classical liberal tradition with a focus on individual liberty and a free society, investigating enduring questions such as: What are the political, economic, and social conditions necessary for individual liberty to thrive? What are the pressing threats and obstacles to human freedom and flourishing in the fast-changing modern world? How can freedom and prosperity be better promoted and protected now and into the future?<\/p>\n

\"Stephenson
Stephenson Institute Director Daniel D\u2019Amico<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe Stephenson Institute complements and builds on Wabash\u2019s strong foundational legacy and role within the American classical liberal tradition,\u201d said Dr. D\u2019Amico. \u201cWe have fast solidified the Institute and Wabash as a major opportunity hub for classical liberal intellectual pursuits at the undergraduate level. The Stephensons\u2019 extraordinary generosity will help the Institute be recognized as the premier undergraduate-focused institute of its kind in the nation, if not the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goals for the new funding include continuing to strengthen, grow, and expand existing student-focused programs including campus guest lectures, on- and off-campus co-sponsorships, scholarly residencies, student internships, and summer seminars. The Institute also supports faculty positions and professional development. Longtime Wabash College faculty Dr. Lorraine McCrary, Dr. V. Daniel Rogers, and Professor Scott Himsel have been named Stephenson Fellows. Dr. D\u2019Amico and his staff also produce original scholarship and a broad-based, international research agenda.<\/p>\n

Wabash students travel the world to conduct research and study the principles of classical liberalism with Stephenson Institute funding. Lucas Carpenter \u201926 studied in Vienna at the Austrian Economics Center in Vienna and played a key role in the Center\u2019s research agenda. \u201cHaving the chance to do research directly for the Vice Chancellor of the Austrian Central Bank was not a task I expected but is one that I will forever be grateful for,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Wabash
Wabash Professsor Nicholas Snow leads a discusson during Stephenson Institute summer programming on campus.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe aspire for Wabash and the Stephenson Institute to be viewed as among the most serious and vibrant opportunities for undergraduate men to study freedom, for senior scholars to visit, and for freshly minted Ph.D.s to start their careers by pursuing research and teaching here at Wabash,\u201d added Dr. D\u2019Amico.<\/p>\n

Grounded in a nearly two-century tenure of liberal-arts higher education in Indiana,\u00a0Wabash\u2019s Stephenson Institute<\/a>\u00a0draws on a long tradition of classical-liberal teaching. Well-known Wabash alumnus and trustee, Pierre Goodrich (1894\u20131973, Class of 1916), was a passionate advocate for thinkers and writers who best exemplified the idea of liberty. Goodrich also went on to found Indiana\u2019s Liberty Fund, which \u201cencourages the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.\u201d Ben Rogge, Professor of Economics and Dean of the College at Wabash, was a highly regarded scholar of classical liberalism who wrote and spoke broadly on the classical liberal tradition during his 31-year teaching career from 1949 through 1980.<\/p>\n

The Stephenson Institute is housed in a beautifully renovated home directly across from the main entrance to the Wabash campus.<\/p>\n

(This story originally appeared here<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wabash College President Scott Feller has announced a $14.7 million gift that will continue the work of the Stephenson Institute for Classical Liberalism. The gift from Richard J Stephenson ’62, his wife, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":203,"featured_media":77,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"iawp_total_views":153,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/49\/2025\/02\/KJJ_9993_front.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/203"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions\/84"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}