The Institute for Human Ecology invites you to our Fourth Annual Installment in the Saint Scholastica Series, “Everyday Beauty through the Benedictine Way of Life.”
Join IHE Scholars Margarita Mooney Clayton and David Clayton, experts in the study of beauty, art, and education, as they share their wisdom on encountering beauty through the Benedictine way of life.
About the speakers:
Dr. Margarita Mooney Clayton: Margarita Mooney Clayton is an Associate Professor of Practical Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, where she teaches classes such as philosophy of social science; aesthetics and education; and devotion to Mary. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Scala Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is to restore meaning and purpose in America through beauty in education, culture, and worship. Professor Mooney Clayton received her B.A. in Psychology from Yale University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from Princeton University. She has also been on the faculty of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Yale University and has taught for the Pepperdine School of Public Policy.
She is the author of The Wounds of Beauty: Seven Dialogues on Art and Education (Cluny Media, 2022), The Love of Learning: Seven Dialogues on the Liberal Arts (Cluny Media, 2021), and Faith Makes Us Live: Surviving and Thriving in the Haitian Diaspora (University of California Press, 2019). She has also written for publications that reach wide audiences both inside and outside academia such as Real Clear Policy, Scientific American, Chronicle of Higher Education, First Things, Public Discourse, Hedgehog Review, National Catholic Register, and Church Life Journal.
Mr. David Clayton: David Clayton is an artist, teacher, and writer based in Princeton, NJ. He serves as Provost and Dean of the Faculty of Sacred Arts at Pontifex University and Artist-in-Residence of the Scala Foundation, a non-profit focused on cultural transformation through beauty in education and liturgy. Born and raised in England, Clayton has an M.A. in Materials Science from Oxford University. He has authored several books, including “The Little Oratory” and “The Way of Beauty.” He studied Byzantine iconography under Aidan Hart, the British master, and classical naturalism and portraiture in Florence, Italy. His art hangs in churches in the US and UK, with notable commissions for the Brompton Oratory in London, Pluscarden Monastery in Scotland and Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in New Hampshire, where he was Artist-in-Residence and Teaching Fellow for seven years. He has also illustrated several books, including Scott Hahn’s “God’s Covenant With You.”
