Institute for the Study of Western Civilization

Our Mission:

The Institute for the Study of Western Civilization seeks to foster research and discussion about the nature, origins, and future of the West; encourage the development of courses and programs on Western civilization and its classic texts; and bring to Texas Tech scholars for whom the study of Western civilization as a distinct phenomenon is a major concern.

The Institute also seeks to serve American education as a whole via conferences, publications, a website, and online networks linking scholars and students at every academic level. There is currently no major American university committed to propagating the study of our civilization throughout academe. In establishing The Institute for the Study of Western Civilization, Texas Tech makes that commitment.

The Institute engages the public-at-large through talks and presentations to civic groups, web based resources for independent learning, and seminars for Texas Tech alumni and others interested in deepening their knowledge of Western civilization and its realization in the United States.

The Institute's scholarly program is organized around a series of intellectual projects, each promoting a particular line of investigation. Implemented over time, these projects will pursue inquiries into topics. Read more about the Areas of Investigation.

The Institute also recognizes the great accomplishments of other civilizations and cultures, aiming through scholarly comparison to learn from them and, in that process, learn more about the West itself.

Finally, the Institute provides forums for all those interested in Western civilization – whatever their view of its history and nature – to engage in the reasoned, open, and informed debate that ennobles academic life and should always be at its heart.

The Importance of Western Civilization:

Western civilization has remade the world. Most of the West’s inhabitants live lives of which their ancestors could only dream: doubly long, rich in diet, teeming with comforts and diversions, and, most of all, endowed with the gift of liberty—not just for a privileged few, but for the many.

Strange to say, Western civilization as a distinct phenomenon—what it is, how it emerged, where it is going, and why its nature has been so promethean?—has ceased to be a major focus of academic attention. Reviving interest in these questions is vital to ensuring America's and the world's continued well-being; for unless we understand Western civilization's uniqueness and fragility we put ourselves in grave danger of losing its blessings.

By establishing the Institute for the Study of Western Civilization, Texas Tech University is taking the lead in returning the remarkable phenomenon that is Western Civilization to its proper place as a core subject of academic study.

For further information regarding the importance of Western Civilization read the following article by Dr. Steve Balch: "Metamorphosis, or Why We Whould Study the West."