小草影院鈥檚 Fifteenth Annual
Symposium on Transforming Culture

The weekend of March 20-21, 2026
2026 Theme: 鈥淥nly the Lover Sings鈥: On Beauty and Wonder
This annual conference is held on the campus of 小草影院 in Atchison, Kansas. The Symposium brings together scholars, business leaders, field professionals and students for a time of fellowship, reflection and dialogue concerning topics integral to the Catholic Faith and its transformative role in our society, culture and business.
2026 Theme: 鈥淥nly the Lover Sings鈥: On Beauty and Wonder

鈥淢an鈥檚 ability to see is in decline,鈥 wrote Josef Pieper in 1952. This observation has only become more accurate in the first quarter of the 21st century. We are increasingly incapable or uninterested in the mystery of being that is directly in front of us. Whether in the grandeur of creation or the eternal dignity of human person, modern man passes by uninterested. The 2026 Symposium on Transforming Culture at 小草影院 takes up this problem.
Call for Abstracts
We are seeking paper and presentation proposals that address the topic of beauty and wonder. Proposals from scholars, artists, and organizational leaders, in any fields or discipline, including theology, philosophy, literature, visual and performing arts, education, and architecture are welcome.
Proposals should be sent in the form of a 150 word abstract. Submissions should be turned in online by December 1, 2025. Notification of acceptance will be given in early January 2026. Presentations will be 20 minutes in length with 2-3 presenters per session.
Event Registration
Symposium Registration: $125
Discounted registration available for students and 小草影院 faculty/staff. Priests and religious can attend at no cost.
If you have any questions, please .
Event Schedule
Friday, March 20, 2026
3:00 p.m.
Registration
Murphy Recreation Center
4:00-5:30 p.m.
Colloquium Session #1
Ferrell Academic Center, Third Floor. Light refreshments provided.
7:30-9:00 p.m.
Keynote #1
9:00 p.m.
Reception
Saturday, March 21, 2026
8:30-9:30 a.m.
Keynote #2
9:45-11:00 a.m.
Colloquium Session #2
Ferrell Academic Center
11:15 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Featured Presenter Sessions
12:30-1:45 p.m.
Lunch
2:00-3:15 p.m.
Keynote #3
3:45-5:05 p.m.
Colloquium Session #3
Ferrell Academic Center
5:15 p.m.
Vigil Mass
St. Benedict鈥檚 Abbey, Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel
6:30-7:30 p.m.
Dinner
7:45-9:00 p.m.
Closing Keynote
9:00 p.m.
Reception
Invited Speakers & Presenters
Duncan Stroik

Speaker Bio
Duncan G. Stroik is a practicing architect, author, and Professor of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame. His award-winning work includes the Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel in Santa Paula, California, the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, and the Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. A frequent lecturer on sacred architecture and the classical tradition, Stroik authored and is the founding editor of . He is a graduate of the University of Virginia and the Yale University School of Architecture. Professor Stroik was the 2016 winner of the Arthur Ross Award for Architecture and was a member of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts from 2019 to 2023.
Jennifer Newsome Martin

Speaker Bio
Jennifer Newsome Martin is a systematic theologian with areas of interest in 19th and 20th century Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox thought, trinitarian theology, theological aesthetics, religion and literature, French feminism, ressourcement theology, and the nature of religious tradition. Her first book, Hans Urs von Balthasar and the Critical Appropriation of Russian Religious Thought (University of Notre Dame Press, 2015), was one of ten winners internationally of the 2017 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise. She is co-editor of An Apocalypse of Love: Essays in Honor of Cyril O鈥 Regan (Herder & Herder, 2018) and the second edition of the forthcoming Blackwell Companion to Catholicism. Over twenty articles and book chapters have appeared in such venues as Modern Theology, Communio: International Catholic Review, The Newman Studies Journal, International Journal of Systematic Theology, and in a number of edited volumes and collections of essays. She serves on the editorial board of Religion & Literature and the University of Notre Dame Press, as well as steering committees of the Hans Urs von Balthasar Consultation of the Catholic Theological Society of America and the Christian Systematic Theology Unit in the American Academy of Religion. Martin was of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture in 2023, succeeding in the position on July 1, 2024.
Gregory Wolfe

Speaker Bio
Writer, editor, publisher, and teacher, Gregory Wolfe has been called 鈥渙ne of the most incisive and persuasive voices of our generation鈥 (Ron Hansen). Both as a thinker and institution-builder, Wolfe has been a pioneer in the resurgence of interest in the relationship between art and religion鈥攁 resurgence that has had widespread impact both on religious communities and the public square. As an advocate for the tradition of , Wolfe has established a reputation as an independent, non-ideological thinker鈥攁t times playing the role of gadfly but ultimately seeking to be a reconciler and peacemaker. In 1989, Wolfe founded , which Annie Dillard has called 鈥渙ne of the best journals on the planet.鈥 Now one of America鈥檚 top literary quarterlies, Image is a unique forum for the best writing and artwork that is informed by鈥攐r grapples with鈥攔eligious faith. In 2013, Gregory Wolfe launched his own literary imprint, , through the Wipf & Stock publishing company. In 2021, it was announced that Slant had been re-launched as a fully independent, non-profit press. Among his books are y (Cascade, 2015), (ISI Books, 2011), (second edition, Square Halo, 2017), (ISI Books, 2003) and (2nd edition, University of Notre Dame Press, 2010). Wolfe is also the editor of The New Religious Humanists: A Reader (Free Press, 1997), (Paraclete, 2007), (Paraclete, 2013), and (Slant, 2015). A convert to the Roman Catholic Church, Wolfe is a member of the international lay movement .
Adam Bartlett

Speaker Bio
The Founder and CEO of Source & Summit, Adam has published and edited multiple liturgy and music resources, composed over 3000 vernacular chant settings, and is active as a writer, teacher, speaker, and workshop presenter. Formerly he served as a parish and cathedral music director, an instructor in liturgical chant at Mundelein Seminary, Assistant Director at the Liturgical Institute, an adjunct faculty member for the Augustine Institute, and as a sacred music consultant for FOCUS. He resides in Grand Rapids, MI with his with and three children.
Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka

Speaker Bio
Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka is Professor and the Director of Sacred Music at in Menlo Park, California, where she holds the William P. Mahrt Chair in Sacred Music and serves as the founding Director of the . She has co-edited , published by the . Her publications also include articles in the New Catholic Encyclopedia, Sacred Music, Antiphon: A Journal for Liturgical Renewal, the proceedings of the Gregorian Institute of Canada, the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly, the Adoremus Bulletin, Liturgy in the Twenty-First Century (Bloomsbury/T&T Clark), and Messiaen in Context (Cambridge University Press). She serves as the Vice President and Director of Publications for the CMAA, is the managing editor of the , and is a regular member of the faculty for the CMAA鈥檚 annual Sacred Music Colloquium. As academic liaison of the CMAA, she has organized and presented papers at several academic conferences on Charles Tournemire, the work of Msgr. Richard Schuler, the , and the work of William Mahrt. She was a co-organizer of the Sacra Liturgia conferences in New York (2015) and San Francisco (2022), and has presented papers at the Sacra Liturgia conferences in New York, London, Milan, and San Francisco and, together with Archbishop Cordileone, is the founder of the Fons et Culmen Sacred Liturgy Summit. The sometime president, she is currently a board member of the . Donelson-Nowicka serves as a Consultant to the .
Lawrence and Katie Joy Daufenbaugh

Speaker Bio
Lawrence and Katie Joy Daufenbach both have backgrounds in arts and business. Katie Joy studied Theater at Northwestern University, served as a FOCUS missionary after college, and worked in marketing and branding until leaving to start this new venture. Lawrence is a cinematographer by training and an entrepreneur at heart. He started his own camera company right out of college and continues to serve on a number of local industry boards.
David P. Deavel

Speaker Bio
Dr. David Deavel was born and raised in Bremen, Indiana. He received a B.A. with majors in English and philosophy from Calvin College and attended Fordham University, where he received the M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in theology. He is currently an Associate Professor of Theology at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas. A Senior Contributor at The Imaginative Conservative, an Associate Editor at Voegelin View, a Contributing Editor for Gilbert, and an editorial board member for Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture (for which he was editor in chief for six years), he has served one term on the Board for the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars. He is a past Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute and also the 2013 winner of the Acton Institute鈥檚 Novak Award. With Jessica Hooten Wilson, he co-edited Solzhenitsyn and American Culture: The Russian Soul in the West. In addition to his academic work, his public and popular writings have appeared in Catholic World Report, City Journal, First Things, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and The Wall Street Journal.
Ryan McDermott

Speaker Bio
Ryan McDermott is鈥痑n associate professor of medieval literature and culture. He earned his Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia after completing an M.T.S. at Duke Divinity School. His first book,鈥疶ropologies: Ethics and Invention in England, c. 1350-1600鈥(University of Notre Dame Press, 2016), tracks changes and continuities in vernacular religious literature across the intellectual and cultural watershed of the English Reformation. Ryan directs the cross-disciplinary, multi-institutional project鈥, and is working on a second book,鈥疓enealogies: How to Think about the Past and the Future in the Humanities. He is a convert to Roman Catholicism from the Episcopal Church.


