Throughout his life, J. J. Penniman has immersed himself in humanist education. As an amateur Classics scholar, he has sung Homer in the original Greek to both public and scholarly audiences, lectured at the Classical Association of New England Summer Institute, and published an original translation of an anciently debated passage in Plato’s Timaeus for The Classical Journal. As a psychoanalyst, now in his 46th year of practice, he has published in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, Psychoanalytic Quarterly, and the Journal of Clinical Psychoanalysis. He trained psychology interns and psychiatric residents in psychoanalytic therapy for thirty years. In a lighter vein, the author, as a middling bridge player, produced a feuilleton for The Daily Bulletin, the newspaper of the American Contract Bridge League Championships. He also devotes two hours weekly to math. Penniman and his wife live in the shadows of New Hampshire’s Presidential Range.

Jeffrey S. Morton, Ph.D., is the Pierrepont Comfort Chair in Political Science and Founding Director of the Leon Charney Diplomacy Program at Florida Atlantic University and a Fellow at the Foreign Policy Association. He has been involved in Model United Nations conferences for more than 40 years

Julien Delhez (b. 1991) studied classical philology at the University of Liège and ancient oriental languages with a focus on Egyptology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. From 2015 to 2024, he lived in Göttingen, Germany, where he completed a Ph.D. in Coptology, a branch of Egyptology, and was subsequently a postdoctoral researcher at the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony. His first book, Shenoute of Atripe and the Rise of Monastic Education in Egypt, was published by Academica Press in 2023. In January 2025, Delhez returned to Belgium to work for the European Research Council-funded “BICROSS” project at the Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven), which is dedicated to bilingual manuscripts of the New Testament. His interests beyond Coptology include classical music (he has been a member of the Stavelot Music Festival since 2012), human evolution, genetics, intelligence, learning languages, traveling in Central and Eastern Europe, and hiking. He is a two-time 50/12 Megamarsch finisher.

John Staddon is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology, and Professor of Biology Emeritus, at Duke University. He obtained his BSc at University College, London, and Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology at Harvard University, while also doing research at the MIT Systems Lab. He has done research at Oxford University (UK), the University of São Paulo at Riberão Preto, the University of Mexico, Ruhr Universität, Universität Konstanz, and the University of Western Australia. He is a fellow of several scientific organizations and holds an honorary doctorate from the Université Charles de Gaulle, Lille 3, France. He is a past editor of the journals Behavioural Processes and Behavior & Philosophy. His experimental and theoretical research is on the evolution and mechanisms of learning in humans and animals; he has also written on the history and philosophy of psychology, economics, and biology. Staddon frequently engages with such public policy issues as education, evolution, traffic control, IQ, the science, law, and politics of smoking, and the effects of social and psychobiological processes on financial markets. In 2021, the Wall Street Journal profiled him as a leading commentator on the current problems of science.

Simon Hankinson is a senior research fellow in the Border Security and Immigration Center at the Heritage Foundation. He writes and speaks on immigration, foreign policy, and other issues, both at Heritage and in various national media outlets. Simon writes the weekly BorderLine column for the Daily Signal. From 1999 to 2023, Hankinson was a U.S. foreign service officer, serving in India, Fiji, Ghana, Slovakia, Togo, Marseille, Nairobi, and Washington. Prior to entering the State Department, he worked as a lawyer in London and then taught history, English, and drama at a private school in Miami. Hankinson holds a Master’s degree in Modern History from the University of St. Andrews, a degree from the College of Law in London, and a second master’s degree in International Security Affairs from the National Defense University in Washington, DC.

Seymour W. Itzkoff is Professor Emeritus of Education at Smith College. His professional career began as a cellist in the Hartford Symphony while studying at the University of Hartford. The Korean War found him playing as a cellist in the U.S. Army Piano Trio in Washington D.C for President Harry S Truman at the White House and for General George Marshall at the Pentagon. Itzkoff’s developing interest in philosophy led him to enroll in doctoral studies at Columbia University. During this period, he taught at several public schools in New York and at Hunter and Lehman Colleges of the City University of New York (CUNY). He then joined the faculty of Smith College, where he taught for 35 years. His publications include 32 books in various academic fields with a major interest in human evolution and intelligence.

is the author of the non-fiction works From Elvis to Trump, Eyewitness to the Unraveling: Co-Starring Richard Nixon, Andy Warhol, Bill Clinton, The Supremes, and Barack Obama (Academica Press, 2021) and Jews Make the Best Demons: “Palestine” and the Jewish Question (New English Review Press, 2018). He also has written two earlier novels, Total Jihad and Kill Them Before They Die. Rozenman’s commentaries and analyses have appeared in outlets including the Washington Post, Washington Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post, New English Review, and Townhall.com. He retired in 2024 as communications consultant for the Washington, D.C.-based Jewish Policy Center. He previously served as Washington director of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), editor of B’nai B’rith’s International Jewish Monthly and the Washington Jewish Week. He also worked as a congressional staffer and reporter for the Ohio Scripps-Howard Newspapers state bureau. Rozenman served on the 2022 Virginia Commission to Combat Antisemitism and participated in the 2009 U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Implementation Seminar. He was an adjunct faculty member in history at Northern Virginia Community College from 2013 to 2019.

John Andrew Morrow is a graduate of the University of Toronto, where he completed his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. He is also the product of several decades of Islamic seminary studies. A polymath and a prolific author, Professor Morrow has published hundreds of academic articles and several dozen scholarly books in a wide array of specialized fields. Dr. Morrow is an award-winning educator, lecturer, and administrator, as well as a geo-political analyst, a best-selling author, and an activist for peace and justice. He has received an interfaith service award from the Islamic Society of North America, a certificate of recognition from the United States Congress, and recognition from the Interfaith Institute of Long Island as one of the most influential American Muslim scholars.

Bilal Muhammad is a vice principal, author, translator, and playwright based in Toronto, Canada. He is a Senior Fellow at the Berkeley Institute for Islamic Studies. He studied Political Science and the History of Religions at the University of Toronto and the University of Ottawa and obtained his B.Ed. at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. He worked as a translator for the University of Toronto’s Department of Historical Studies and translated the Amali of Shaykh al-Saduq. He is the author of numerous books.

Aaron Rhodes was born and raised in the Southern Tier of New York State, where he attended a public school. He was further educated at Reed College and the University of Chicago, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in the Committee on Social Thought. After serving as Assistant to the President of Boston University, he worked on higher education reform projects in post-communist societies at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. In 1993, Rhodes was named Executive Director of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, a post he held until 2007. He was subsequently a co-founder of both the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran and the Freedom Rights Project and was President of the Forum for Religious Freedom-Europe, from 2014 to 2025. Rhodes is the author of The Debasement of Human Rights (2018). His numerous articles and editorials have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Newsweek, Die Zeit, Law & Liberty, the National Interest, and elsewhere. The Republic of Austria made Rhodes an honorary citizen for his human rights work, and he has received the University of Chicago Alumni Association’s Public Service Citation as “one of the leading human rights activists in the world.” He lives in Hamburg, Germany with his family.

Editors: Suvro Parui is Research Fellow at the Vivekanada International Foundation (VIF), New Delhi and attached to Amity School of Languages. Parui holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in Chinese language, literature, and culture from Banaras Hindu University and a Ph.D. in Chinese Literature from Visva Bharati University. His scholarly interests include national movements, historical literature, and Chinese documentation and translation, particularly in social and economic topics. He has been a Fellow of the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies (MAKAIAS), a Courtesy Faculty Member at the University of Calcutta’s China Center, Visiting Lecturer at Visva Bharati University’s Cheena Bhawan Center, and Lecturer at the School of Languages of the Ahmadabad Management Association (AMA) in Ahmadabad.

Udaya Narayana Singh is Chair-Professor at Amity University Gurugram, Haryana. Formerly Director of the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Visva-Bharati University, he has taught at the Universities of Hyderabad, Delhi, South Gujarat, and the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. He has published seven collections of poems, six books of essays, twelve plays, and 250 research papers, and created 545 documentary films. A poet-invitee at the Frankfurt Book Fair (2006) and Leader of the Cultural Delegation of Writers to China (2007), Singh has lectured in numerous countries. His latest book is The Other India: View From Below (2022).