Stephen Blackwood is the founding President of Ralston College, a new university in Savannah, Georgia, now preparing for launch. Grateful as he is for the inestimable gift of his education, he believes that most colleges and universities have lost their way—that they are failing to provide the liberating, self-knowledge-giving experience that many young people seek. He believes that we must found new institutions of higher education that are adequate to the hunger of the young, and he believes the flourishing of a fully human culture depends on such institutions. His writings and lectures range from the seminal figures of Western culture (Plato, Boethius, and Dante, among others) to the urgent questions of our own polity and cultural life. His first book, The Consolation of Boethius as Poetic Liturgy, was published by Oxford University Press in 2015.