CiRCE Institute Podcast Network

Welcome to FORMA, a podcast featuring conversations with authors, teachers, creators, and community leaders who are carefully contemplating the nature and practice of classical education and the arts.

In this episode, David Kern chats with Jason Baxter, a professor and writer from Wyoming Catholic College, about his new books, A Beginner's Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy. This seeks to help "readers better appreciate and understand the complexity and layers of meaning of Dante's spiritual masterpiece." Topics of conversation include the challenges of teaching Dante today, Dante's modern moment, why the Divine Comedy is worth loving, and much more.

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Jason M. Baxter (PhD, University of Notre Dame) is associate professor of fine arts and humanities at Wyoming Catholic College in Lander, Wyoming, where he worked with the Distance Learning Program to produce an eighteen-part introduction to the Divine Comedy. Baxter also codirected the college's Rome Immersion Experience, designed to introduce students to the highlights of Roman art, architecture, history, and culture. He has been invited to speak at universities across the country on the modern relevance of the liberal arts and on topics pertaining to Dante.