People of Ralston: Meet our Fellows Connor Livingston and Will Paschal

Ralston College is a community of bold and courageous thinkers committed to intellectual and cultural renewal. Our People of Ralston series is dedicated to introducing you to the individuals at the heart of this ambitious educational venture—students, fellows, visitors, faculty, administrators, and alumni—who bring this vision to life. They are the creative minds and voices building and sustaining the College, drawn from diverse humanistic disciplines and professional backgrounds.

In this installment, we are delighted to introduce our two Ralston Fellows this year: Connor Livingston and Will Paschal. Their projects differ in subject, but share a common spirit: a desire to return to the sources of language, texts, and traditions in order to recover clearer guidance for how to live our lives today. We hope that, through this series, you enjoy getting to know the people who make Ralston College what it is: a growing community dedicated to truth, freedom, beauty, and fellowship.

Connor Livingston (MA, ’25) is a classicist and fellow-in-formation whose work explores how ancient philosophy, especially Stoicism, can bring clarity and strength to one of modernity’s most urgent questions: what does it mean to be mentally healthy, in the fullest and most demanding sense? During his fellowship at Ralston, he is tracing the Stoic tradition back to its ancient Greek roots, examining how this philosophy’s account of virtue, endurance, and right action can inform contemporary conversations around psychotherapy, resilience, and the formation of character.

Prior to Ralston, Connor studied Classics and Psychology at Princeton, focusing his research on the intersection of Stoicism and mental health, seeking to bring Stoic thought more fully into both the cultural conversation and the practical application of psychotherapy. His interests are strikingly practical and action-oriented: how to become the sort of person who can meet hardship without collapse, discern what is true and good, and act accordingly. Alongside his academic work, Connor is also part of Ralston’s new K–12 Partnership Program, supporting our relationships with schools by welcoming visiting groups to campus and helping to translate the life of the mind into something tangible for younger students.

This year, Connor has also helped host visiting speakers and conversations for the wider Ralston community, most recently joining Dr Spencer Klavan during his visit to campus, which can be listened to below. Klavan’s lecture “Blood Guilt and Ballot Boxes: The Oresteia in America” (and the wider conversation it sparked) offers a vivid example of the kind of public humanities Ralston exists to cultivate. As Connor puts it: “How does one act as a good man or woman right now? How can we train ourselves to endure difficult challenges?

Listen now to Spencer Klavan on the Practice of Loving Wisdom: A Career and Life Conversation with Connor Livingston

Will Paschal (MA, ’25) is a mathematician and humanist whose work explores the deeper purposes of mathematical and scientific inquiry within the history of the liberal arts. Raised in Madison, a small town in rural Georgia outside of Atlanta, Will studied Pure Mathematics at Georgia Tech and, discovering a love for philosophy and the liberal arts, attended Ralston College as an MA student, graduating in May 2025. During those years, he encountered the writings of Plato, Aristotle, St Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas, authors who uncovered questions which, as he says, he “did not yet have the words to ask.”

Now having returned to Ralston as a Fellow, Will is pursuing a project in the history of mathematics and science. His work asks a deceptively simple set of questions: how ought we to gather and organize knowledge of the natural order, and what is such knowledge really for? Through close engagement with primary sources, he is exploring how the mathematical disciplines once belonged to a broader vision of the good life, and how mathematics can be understood not merely as technical skill, but as a way of listening carefully to reality. Alongside his research, Will leads the Euclid Club for students and alumni, where participants read the Greek text of Euclid’s Elements to recover the ancient art of geometry through direct engagement with classical proofs (most recently the Pythagorean Theorem). He also tutors local middle school students in mathematics.

Although Connor and Will work in different fields, both are drawn to the same underlying question: what does it mean to live wisely in a moment that often feels unmoored and directionless? Connor looks to the Stoics for an account of virtue and endurance; Will returns to the sources of mathematics and philosophy to understand how our minds can learn to “listen and respond” to the world as it is. Reflecting on his year, Will writes:

“For a long time I felt somewhat adrift… Now, having spent a great deal of time with our ancestors, letting them feed me, teach me, and guide me, I feel very secure… Mathematics, like philosophy or poetry, is part of this inheritance. It teaches us to listen first so we can know how to respond.”

Watch below Will Pascal on how the humanities shows us a mirror from which we cannot look away.

About the Ralston Fellows Program: A Year of Intellectual and Creative Pursuit

The Ralston Fellows Program enables recent alumni to devote a full academic year to a self-designed project, whether in scholarship, public service, the arts, or other creative and intellectual pursuits. Fellows are selected for their academic excellence, seriousness of purpose, and the potential of their proposed project. While projects are pursued independently, Fellows remain closely connected to the College through mentorship and participation in key academic and cultural events. Past projects have included the translation of ancient texts, theatrical direction, and the development of original philosophical work.

Generously supported by the Long Family Force for Good Foundation, each Fellowship includes a $25,000 stipend and up to $3,000 in project support. The Fellowship exemplifies Ralston’s mission to form free and courageous thinkers, and serves as a launching ground for graduates as they extend their study, service, and creativity into the wider world.

If you are interested in supporting this project, or learning more, please contact us at development@ralston.ac.