Brief Biography:

‍Thanks to his parents’ desire to homeschool classically, Nolan was blessed to be acquainted with classical education from early childhood in northern Michigan. The examples of good teaching at home and at Hillsdale eventually awoke a desire to pursue a vocation in education. After graduating from Hillsdale, he taught fifth-grade Language Arts and History with Valor Education in Austin, TX, where he also served as a lower school dean and co-led high school creative writing and journalism clubs. He is excited for the chance to more deeply root himself in the classical tradition and in classical pedagogy with the MACE program. In addition to teaching, Nolan loves writing, and his work has been published with the Wall Street Journal’s Future View column, the CiRCE Institute, the Detroit News, the Tennessean, and the Hillsdale Collegian.

Research interests:

‍I am interested in the moral imagination, Protestant retrieval theology, and philosophy of literature, especially as they pertain to education. My other interests include classical homeschooling, approaches to teaching Shakespeare, and the writings of Augustine, John Donne, and C.S. Lewis.

Post-graduation plans: I plan to continue teaching at a classical school. I am also interested in pursuing school leadership and coaching teachers in pedagogy and curriculum.

What has been your greatest academic challenge thus far? My greatest challenge thus far has been balancing the quantity and quality of reading. One could spend countless hours on any one of the great works we read, yet participating well in courses on history, philosophy, and literature spanning hundreds of years requires a discipline of time and thought.

‍