ISME2026
Narratives, Education, and Flourishing Life
About | Schedule | Register | Travel
July 8–10, 2026
The 19th Annual Conference of the International Society for MacIntyrean Enquiry
Organized in collaboration with the Moray House School of Education and Sport
University of Edinburgh, U.K.
Wednesday, July 8
REGISTRATION
10:00–10:30
[ADD ROOM]
OPENING ADDRESSES
10:30–11:00
[ADD ROOM]
CONFERENCE OPENING
John Ravenscroft (University of Edinburgh)
COLLOQUIA 1
11:00–12:30
[Room]
[Panel Title]
Chair: TBD
“Education as a Moral Practice: Janusz Korczak in Light of Alasdair MacIntyre’s Conception”
Pola Deka (Affiliation)
“The Liberal Halting of the Communal Turn in Scotland: Religion, Schools & the clash of Traditions”
Paul Gilfillan (Affiliation)
“MacIntyre and the Virtues and Limitations of a Classical Education”
Peter Wicks (Elm Institute / Yale University)
[Room]
[Panel Title]
Chair: TBD
“MacIntyrean Resistance in Bait: Cinema as a Pedagogical Medium for Ethical Formation”
Nathalia Bell (Affiliation)
“Storytelling and Virtue Ethics: A MacIntyrean Reading of J.R.R. Tolkien and Beatrix Potter”
António Cardoso Pinto (Affiliation)
“Storytellers Tell Stories”
Michael Potts (Affiliation) & Heather Morris (Affiliation)
[Room]
[Panel Title]
Chair: TBD
“Reinterpreting the Artistic-Aesthetic Divide through MacIntyre”
Ieva Grazyte (Affiliation)
“The Duty to Art: Kant, MacIntyre, and the Normativity of Aesthetic Judgement”
Grant Heller (Affiliation)
“Trauma or Virtue? Rachmaninoff’s Revisionary Process and the Role of Criticism in Healthy Practices”
Johnathan Raine (Affiliation) & Reiss Krueger (Affiliation)
LUNCH
12:30–1:15
[]
KEYNOTE LECTURE 1
13:15–14:30
[Room]
“On Human Dignity: A Historical Super-commentary on Alasdair MacIntyre’s Lecture”
Shari Sabeti (University of Edinburgh)
COLLOQUIA 2
14:30–16:00
[Room]
[Panel Title]
Chair: TBD
“Supererogation and Anscombe's Two Traditions of Ethical Inquiry”
Haidun Liu (Harvard University)
“Elizabeth Anscombe on Plain Persons”
Christopher James Wolfe (University of St Thomas)
“MacIntyre, Anscombe and Julius Kovesi: Three Ways Forward in Ethics”
Alan Tapper (Curtin University)
[Room]
[Panel Title]
Chair: TBD
“Traditions in Dialogue and Conflict Within a Person: A Case Study of Synderesis in Modernity”
Dominique Mailloux (University of Québec in Trois-Rivières)
“The Narrative Unity of Life: An Early Episode in the Development of an Idea”
Phillip Piper (The Catholic University of America)
“Integrating Ethical and Therapeutic Perspectives”
Logan T. Bateman (Trinity Western University)
[Room]
[Panel Title]
Chair: TBD
“MacIntyre and Romano Guardini on the Search for an Orientation after the End of the Modern World”
Greg Beabout (Saint Louis University)
“Two Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry: Hannah Arendt and Franz Jägerstätter”
Sante Maletta (University of Bergamo)
“The Life and Times of a Tradition: A Brief, but Critical Look at the Alasdair MacIntyre Corpus”
Jeffrey Pocock (University of Bristol)
COFFEE BREAK
3:00–3:30
ARCH First Floor Lobby
COLLOQUIA 3
3:30–5:00
[Room]
[Panel Title]
Chair: TBD
“Exposing the Brokenness of Modern Leadership Education”
James N. Slear (United States Air Force, Air University)
“Enlisting Homer and the Greek Tragedians in Educating Military Leaders”
John M. Walker (United States Air Force, Air University)
“Machiavelli, Shakespeare and the War over the Military Mind”
Daniel A. Connelly (United States Air Force, Air University)
[Room]
[Panel Title]
Chair: TBD
“The Tradition of Natural Law: How is Alasdair MacIntyre Situated within that Tradition?”
Thomas Pearson (The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley)
“Obedience, Conscience, and Moral Autonomy in Matthew Levering, The Abuse of Conscience: Recognizing the Hallmarks of the Rationality of “Morality of Obligation"”
Christopher Stephen Lutz (Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology)
“Reconciling Rival Traditions: Aquinas on Sin, Ignorance, and Deliberate Wrongdoing”
Nicholas Ogle (St. Charles Borromeo Seminary)
[Room]
[Panel Title]
Chair: TBD
“Écrasez l'Infame: Tradition and the Proper Place of Authority between the Frankfurt School and Revolutionary Aristotelianism”
Jeffery L. Nicholas (Providence College)
“MacIntyre and the European Court of Human Rights”
Nils Victor Langensteiner (Luxembourg University)
“The Common Law as a MacIntyrean Tradition”
Michael Moreland (Villanova University)
(OPTIONAL) MEMORIAL MASS FOR ALASDAIR MACINTYRE
5:30–6:30
St. Agatha – St. James Parish
WORKSHOP FOR EARLY-CAREER SCHOLARS
7:00-8:30
New Deck Tavern
Thursday, July 9
BREAKFAST
8:00–8:45
ARCH First Floor Lobby
COLLOQUIA 4
8:45–10:45
[Room]
[Panel Title]
Chair: Andrew Lynn (Villanova University)
Author: Mark Hoipkemeier (University of Navarre)
Respondents:
Caleb Bernacchio (Loyola University New Orleans)
Jeffery Nicholas (Providence College)
Brian J. A. Boyd (Loyola University New Orleans)
[Room]
[Panel Title]
Chair: Ostiane Lazrak
“Herbert McCabe’s MacIntyrean Understanding of the Development of Doctrine”
Taylor Payne (Ave Maria University)
“Alasdair MacIntyre the Theologian? Engaging Rival Theological Traditions”
Fr. Joseph Scolaro (Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas)
“Ecumenism in the Conflicts of Theology: A Tradition-Constituted Approach to Ecumenical Dialogue”
J. Burke Rea (Eastern University)
“The Quest for Truth: Reason, Religion, and Tradition in MacIntyre and Newman”
Joshua Johnston (Villanova University)
COFFEE BREAK
10:45–11:00
ARCH First Floor Lobby
COLLOQUIA 5
11:00–12:30
[Room]
[Panel Title]
Chair: David DiQuattro
“Anscombe and MacIntyre on Justice”
John Berkman (University of Toronto)
“Are Human Needs a Sufficient Foundation for Morality? Anscombe’s Perspective on MacIntyre’s Views of Morality’s Basis”
Georgina Raventós (University of Barcelona)
“Anscombe and MacIntyre on the Enlightenment Project of Justifying Morality”
Peter Wicks (Yale University)
[Room]
[Panel Title]
Chair: Brian Boyd
“Reasoning Beyond Tradition: Artificial Intelligence and the Fragmentation of Rationality”
Lily M. Abadal (University of South Florida)
“The Irrelevance of Tradition in a Digital Workplace”
Pablo García-Ruiz (University of Zaragoza)
“Are Dependent Artificial Intelligences Possible?”
Nurit Matuk Blaustein (University of Southern California) & Jeremy Freeman (Independent Scholar)
[Room]
[Panel Title]
Chair: Caleb Bernacchio
“Examining the Tradition of Civil-Military Relations”
Bart Kennedy (Independent Scholar)
“Beyond Simulacra: MacIntyre and the Emerging Practices of the Social Internet”
Benjamin Ball (Yale Divinity School)
“In or Out? How Does the Public Fit into the Practice of Journalism?”
Sandra L. Borden (Western Michigan University)
LUNCH
12:30–1:45
ARCH First Floor Lobby
COLLOQUIA 6
1:45–3:15
[Room]
[Panel Title]
Chair: Thomas Pearson
“Aristotelians, Pragmatists, and a Third Way in the Philosophy of Science”
Raquel Sequeira (University of Notre Dame)
“Paradigms, Traditions, and the Underdetermination Thesis”
Stephen Napier (Villanova University)
“Toward a Computational Master Scientific Defense of the Thomistic Tradition”
Thomas Loughran (University of Notre Dame)
[Room]
[Panel Title]
Chair: Sante Maletta
“Plato’s Guardians: Strain and Legitimacy in Early Christian Platonism”
Alfredo Watkins (Duke University)
“The Unity and Development of Early Franciscan Teachings on the Cardinal Virtues”
Michael Copas (The Catholic University of America)
“Reevaluating Súarez’s Impact in Modern Philosophy: Towards a Dialogue between Thomism and Suarezianism”
Raimundo R. Cox (University of Pittsburgh)
[Room]
[Panel Title]
Chair: Caleb Bernacchio
“Public Goods and Common Good: Rival Liberalisms”
Alberto Díaz Rivero (Gabriela Mistral University)
“Diversity of Tradition Versus Critique of Liberalism”
Magdalena M. Baran (University of the National Education Commission, Krakow)
“MacIntyre’s Critique of Liberalism”
Joe Simpson (Independent Scholar)
COFFEE BREAK
3:15–3:45
ARCH First Floor Lobby
KEYNOTE LECTURE 2
3:45–5:00
ARCH208
“On Human Dignity: A Historical Super-commentary on Alasdair MacIntyre’s Lecture”
Professor Samuel Moyn (Yale University)
CONFERENCE BANQUET
7:00–9:00
Friday, July 10
BREAKFAST
8:00–8:45
ARCH First Floor Lobby
COLLOQUIA 7
8:45–10:15
[Room]
[Panel Title]
Chair: Tom Loughran
“By Narrative or Paralogy? MacIntyre's Tradition-Constituted Inquiry and the Justification of Academic Spaces”
Michael J. O’Neill (Providence College)
“Traditions, Rationality and ‘Second Nature’: Towards A Theory of Initiation and Learning”
Ryan Robert Thornton (University of Reading)
“Tradition, Forms of Culture, and Cultural Evolution”
Robert Elliot (Providence College)
[Room]
[Panel Title]
Chair: Garrett Potts
“Hylomorphic Interpretation of Anscombe's Intention and ‘The First Person’”
David Herr (Xavier University)
“Human Nature as the Measure of Traditions of Moral Inquiry: The Place of Macintyre within the Neo-Aristotelian Metaethical Tradition”
Michael McInerny (Central European University)
“Of MacIntyre, Progress and Truth”
Steven Peña (University of Arizona)
[Room]
[Panel Title]
Chair: Alfredo Watkins
“Desire and Discernment: MacIntyre and Lonergan within the Aristotelian Tradition”
Mary Elliot (Boston College)
“Augustine in the Aftermath of Defeated Tradition”
Benjamin Rusch Gómez (University of Mary)
“Augustinian Eudaimonism”
David M. DiQuattro (Stetson University)
COFFEE BREAK
10:15–10:30
ARCH First Floor Lobby
COLLOQUIA 8
10:30–12:00
[Room]
[Panel Title]
Chair: Greg Beabout
“MacIntyre’s Critique of Liberalism and the Crisis of Meaningful Work: Implications for True and False Callings”
Garrett W. Potts (University of South Florida)
“On Doing a Bad Job: Comparing Marxist, Managerial, and Neo-Aristotelian Accounts of Dehumanizing Labor”
Andrew Lynn (Villanova University)
“A MacIntyrean Development of Commutative Justice for Wage Workers”
Brian J. A. Boyd (Loyola University New Orleans)
[Room]
[Panel Title]
Chair: Alan Tapper
“Development in the History of Philosophy”
Jan Eufinger (University of Hagen)
“Two Rival Accounts of Ascesis: MacIntyre and Foucault”
Ostiane Lazrak (Paris-1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University)
“The Mask of the Absolute: On MacIntyre and Hegel”
Patrick Burke Corry (Villanova University)
CLOSING REMARKS
12:00–12:30
ARCH First Floor Lobby