The Carolina Fellowship brings together a selective group of professionals committed to preserving and advancing the principles of liberty, prosperity, and beauty. Over six days of intensive seminars with renowned faculty, fellows explore the foundational principles of the United States in the context of Western civilization.
Convened in beautiful Bluffton, South Carolina, the program serves as a retreat where participants explore the interrelationships that exist between liberty, prosperity, and beauty while acquiring the necessary tools to further their education and become effective leaders in their respective communities and career fields.
The Carolina Fellowship convened in 2021, 2022, and 2023 and is not currently accepting applications.
Questions about this fellowship can be directed to fellowships@commonsensesociety.org.
Intended for recent graduates, graduate students, and young professionals who have demonstrated achievement in their profession or field of study, the Carolina Fellowship focuses on grounding future leaders in the ideals of responsible liberty at an early stage of their intellectual, academic, and professional development.
All materials, accommodations, and meals are provided during the program. Fellows are responsible for all other expenses related to their participation, including transportation to and from the venue.
Ms. Katharine Birbalsingh CBE is the founder and headmistress of Michaela Community School, a charter school established in Wembley Park, London. She has been identified as among the twenty most influential figures in British education and was awarded the Contrarian Prize. She is the author of several books; her most recent, The Power of Culture, was published in 2020. Her work and pedagogy is analyzed in the 2022 Michaela documentary, The Strictest Headmistress in Britain. She is also chair of the Social Mobility Commission and was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours.
Mr. Det Bowers is a principal at Wilson Kibler, South Carolina’s most accomplished independent full-service commercial real estate firm. Prior to joining Wilson Kibler, Mr. Bowers served as a licensed attorney practicing in federal, state, and municipal courts. Other business involvements have included real estate development, retail development and operations, agribusiness, forestry products, outdoor advertising, and insurance.
Mr. Benjamin Crocker is academic programs manager at UATX in Austin, Texas, and since 2022, has been research fellow in music studies at Common Sense Society. He is from North Queensland, Australia, and most recently taught at the King’s School in Sydney. Ben has lectured and guest conducted at the University of Sydney and recorded for nationwide radio broadcast at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. In 2021, he was appointed as an inaugural Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation scholar to Washington, D.C. His columns have been published by The Spectator, The Federalist, and Australia’s Quadrant magazine.
Mr. Michael Curtis is the artist-in-residence at Common Sense Society. He is a sculptor, painter, historian, architectural designer and poet. He has taught and lectured at universities, colleges, and museums, including the Institute for Classical Architecture and Art, the College for Creative Studies, and the National Gallery of Art. His pictures and statues are housed in over three hundred private and public collections, including the Library of Congress, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Supreme Court. His plays, essays, verse and translations have been published in over thirty journals. His most recent nonfiction books include, Occasional Poetry: How to Write Poems for Any Occasion, and The Classical Architecture and Monuments of Washington, D.C.: A History and Guide.
Dr. Tim Eriksen is an acclaimed musician who has transformed the American tradition with his interpretations of old ballads, love songs, shape-note gospel, and dance tunes from New England and Southern Appalachia. He combines vocals with inventive accompaniment on banjo, fiddle, guitar, and bajo sexto. Dr. Eriksen’s compositions have been featured in films and documentaries. He has extensively contributed to an Oscar-winning film and a Grammy-nominated album. His collaborations range from hardcore punk and Bosnian pop to symphony orchestra.
Dr. Joshua Mitchell is a senior fellow at Common Sense Society and a professor of political theory at Georgetown University. He has also been chairman of the government department and associate dean of faculty affairs at Georgetown University in Qatar. He has published several books including The Fragility of Freedom: Tocqueville on Religion, Democracy, and the American Future and American Awakening: Identity Politics and Other Afflictions of Our Time.
The Hon. Jon Parrish Peede is a senior fellow at Common Sense Society, the visiting writer in residence at Mississippi Valley State University, a public HBCU institution, and the former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. As chairman, he awarded more than $500 million to universities, museums, libraries, scholars, and cultural nonprofits nationwide. He is the co-editor of Inside the Church of Flannery O’Connor: Sacrament, Sacramental, and the Sacred in Her Fiction. He has been interviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The New York Times, Stars & Stripes, Inside Higher Education, NPR, Bloomberg Radio, BBC, CSPAN, PBS, and other media outlets. He completed his B.S. at Vanderbilt University and M.A. at the University of Mississippi.
Dr. David Rose is a senior fellow at Common Sense Society and professor of economics at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. His primary areas of research interest are behavioral economics, political economy, and organization theory. In 2008, he received the St. Louis Business Journal’s Economic Educator of the year award. His book, The Moral Foundation of Economic Behavior was selected as one of CHOICE’s outstanding titles of 2012 and was nominated for the Hayek Book Prize. He frequently contributes to policy debates through radio and television interviews as well as in op-eds in outlets such as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Word on Business, The School Choice Advocate, Forbes, The Washington Times, and The Christian Science Monitor. He received his Ph.D. in economics in 1987 from the University of Virginia and his B.S. from Southwest Missouri State University.
Dr. Jean Yarbrough is a professor of government and the Gary M. Pendy, Sr. Professor of Social Sciences at Bowdoin College. She has twice received research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities (N.E.H.). She is the author of American Virtues: Thomas Jefferson on the Character of a Free People and Theodore Roosevelt and the American Political Tradition, and editor of The Essential Jefferson. Dr. Yarbrough is also the author of numerous articles and essays in American political thought and public policy, as well as other topics in political philosophy. She recently completed a Senate-confirmed appointment to the N.E.H.’s National Council. In 2021, she was awarded the Henry Salvatori Prize for her scholarly work and public service in upholding the principles of the American Founding.