Good leadership is essential for a just political order. But we are often not able to characterize such leadership with precision. And even though nobody doubts leadership’s importance, we are unsure about how to cultivate or teach it. Great works of literature are enduring sources of wisdom to address both the shape and proper cultivation of good leadership. The Center for Civics, Culture, and Society and the Humanities Center at Miami University are proud to host a three-day symposium on Literature and Leadership. Renowned scholars and teachers will come together from November 18-20, 2025 at Miami to conduct public lectures and conversations and lead seminars for students. Authors discussed and taught will include Plutarch, Shakespeare, Benjamin Franklin, and Mark Twain. 

Hugh Liebert is Professor of Political Science, Director of the Dawkins Scholars Program, and the founding Co-Director of the American Foundations minor at the United States Military Academy. Dr. Liebert is the author or editor of seven books, including Plutarch’s Politics (2016), and Gibbon’s Christianity (2022). A specialist on the history of political thought, he has also written widely on American politics and foreign policy. His articles and essays have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Texas National Security Review, The Point, Claremont Review of Books, and First Things. Dr. Liebert is currently working on a book manuscript on localism in American political thought.

Rebecca Burgess is Senior Fellow at the Yorktown Institute and acting director of the Classics in Strategy and Diplomacy project, and an SME consultant for the George W. Bush Institute’s Veterans and Military Families program. She has two-plus decades of combined public policy, administrative, and academic experience, holding the position most recently as a research fellow both in Foreign and Defense Policy and Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Her work has been solicited for congressional testimonies, and featured in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Economist, Military Times, Newsweek, and The American Interest, among others.