Zena Hitz to Speak at 2027 Symposium

Preparations are underway for the 2027 Great Hearts National Symposium for Classical Education, taking place February 24–26 at the Tempe Mission Palms Hotel in Tempe, Ariz. The annual “big tent” event for classical education is hosted by the Great Hearts Institute and welcomes educators, scholars, and leaders from across the country. But in the meantime, we are excited to offer a sneak peek at one of the keynote speakers, author Zena Hitz from St. John’s College.

The theme of the 2027 National Symposium is Recovering Reading and Reason in a Distracted Age. “Classical Education abjures screens and phones in our classrooms and in the hallways of our schools,” explained Great Hearts Institute Director, Carol McNamara. “Yet, the culture of screens and technology circling our schools continues to erode the habits of deep reading, careful reasoning, and thoughtful conversation that support our shared culture and form our capacity for civic renewal and self-governance.”

Hitz, a tutor at St. John’s College and author of Lost in Thought: The Pleasures of an Intellectual Life, argues that it is the immersion in “reading and conversation, the insistence on asking the basic human questions” that engages young minds in the “romance and significance” of every book and the ideas that are new to every first reader of them. Her book explores the meaning and the value of learning for its own sake, through images and stories of bookworms, philosophers, scientists, and other learners, both fictional and historical. She writes and speaks on the human need to learn for its own sake and what it means for educational institutions to take that need seriously.

She studied at St. John’s College, Cambridge University, The University of Chicago, and Princeton before teaching philosophy at McGill University, Auburn University, and UMBC. She spent three years living and working in the Madonna House Apostolate and has taught in prison programs and to other non-traditional students.

At the National Symposium on February 25, 2027, Hitz will address the theme of Reading and Freedom. In her keynote address, Hitz will argue that serious reading remains the surest path to forming free men and women.

The Great Hearts Institute invites you to join them at the Great Hearts National Symposium for Classical Education in February 2027. Register today to take advantage of special “early bird” pricing before it expires.

REGISTER NOW FOR 2027 SYMPOSIUM

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