Jennifer A. Frey

Jennifer Frey, a philosophy professor who founded an honors college at the University of Tulsa, recounts building a rigorous great-books curriculum and winning rapid student and donor support. She describes seminar-style teaching, a set syllabus from antiquity to modernity, and cultivating intellectual friendships. She also tells how administrative turnover led to a dramatic defunding and her public defense of liberal learning.

Dr. Jennifer Frey, philosophy professor and former honors college dean known for her work on virtue and classical education, discusses why young readers are returning to Dostoyevsky and other great books. She explores storytelling’s role in shaping moral imagination. She defends liberal education against metric-driven trends and explains why a flexible literary canon and critics matter for forming thoughtful readers.

In this insightful discussion, Professor Jennifer A. Frey, a leading philosopher from the University of Tulsa, delves into the pursuit of wisdom through the lenses of Thomas Aquinas and John Henry Newman. She critiques the modern university's focus on specialization, likening it to a 'knowledge-production machine' that neglects the humanities. Frey champions Newman's vision of a liberal education, which fosters universal knowledge and promotes human flourishing. She argues that wisdom should guide all disciplines, encouraging students to engage in philosophical inquiry for a meaningful life.