May 21-23, 2026

Steubenville, OH 43952

The sixth annual New Polity conference aims to refute bad ideas concerning marriage and sexual difference; to debate the metaphysics of man and woman; to argue for a profound continuity between the order of man and woman and the political and cosmic order as a whole; to shed a light on the tyranny-destroying potential of marriage; and, in sum, to rediscover the mystery and purpose of sexual difference as revealed by the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.

Featuring a keynote from Margaret Harper McCarthy, a closing reception on Saturday night, and the opportunity to present on how you’re living out Catholic Social Teaching. 

Looking forward to seeing you there. Like actually seeing you!

Register now!

Conference Price: $195

We hope you can attend in person! Digital access will not be offered this year.

Are you a professed religious? Email us for a discount at cs@newpolity.com

Margaret Harper McCarthy is Associate Professor of Theological Anthropology at the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington DC. She is the editor of Humanum: Issues in Family, Culture, and Science, serves on the editorial board of the English edition of Communio: International Catholic Review, is a member of the Academy of Catholic Theology, and is a consultant to the USCCB’s Committee on Doctrine. Her teaching and writing has focused on various themes belonging to theological anthropology relative to the question of sexual difference (the imago Dei, equality, experience, feminism, the nature of love), but also relative to the larger nature-grace question (Christocentrism, predestination, the relation between the church and the world). 

Marc Barnes is a father of three, the editor of New Polity magazine, the host of New Polity Podcast, and the president of the Harmonium Project, a nonprofit dedicated to urban revitalization and transformation in Steubenville, Ohio. Marc has written on a number of topics—on gender and family, the Christian approach to money and the stock market, the Christian response to AI, among many others. His book What Children Are For is forthcoming from New Polity Press.

Andrew Willard Jones is Provost and Professor of History and Political Theory at the College of St. Joseph the Worker. He holds a PhD in Medieval History from Saint Louis University with a focus on the Church of the High Middle Ages. Jones’s work is primarily concerned with historical political theology and with the reconciliation of the post-modern with the pre-modern. Methodologically, his work treats history as a theological discipline and not as a secular archaeology. Jones is the author of Before Church and State: A Study of Social Order in St. Louis IX’s Sacramental Kingdom and the one-volume history of the Catholic Church The Two Cities: A History of Christian Politics. His most recent book The Church Against the State is available now from New Polity Press

D. C. Schindler is Professor of Metaphysics and Anthropology at the John Paul II Institute in Washington DC. He studied the Great Books at Notre Dame and theology at the JPII Institute, and earned a PhD in philosophy at the Catholic University of America. He is the author of many books, including Freedom from Reality: The Diabolical Character of Modern Liberty (Notre Dame, 2017) and The Politics of the Real: The Church between Liberalism and Integralism (New Polity, 2021), a translator of German and French, and a collaborating editor of Communio: International Catholic Review. Professor Schindler lives in Hyattsville, Maryland, with his wife and three children.

Matthew B. Crawford attended the University of California at Santa Barbara, where he majored in physics. Later he earned a Ph.D. in political philosophy from the University of Chicago, specializing in ancient political thought. He is a senior fellow at the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, and author of Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work, The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction, and, most recently, Why We Drive.

Marilyn Simon earned her PhD on Shakespeare from the University of Toronto. She is known for her writing on sex and women, and, more broadly, on culture and joy. She's working on her first book titled Submission: How Falling in Love with Shakespeare Made Me a More Joyful Woman, Wife, and Lover. Her writing appears regularly in Unherd, Quillette, and The Hedgehog Review.

Maria Brandell is is a fellow at New Polity and currently pursuing a Master in Biblical Studies degree at the University of Notre Dame. She received a Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude in Philosophy, Theology, and Catechetics from Franciscan University of Steubenville. She was the co-host of the New Polity podcast series “The Politics of Gender,” and her writing has focused mainly on the topic of gender, with a particular interest in exploring the social role of female monastic communities and spirituality.

John Finley is a tutor at Thomas Aquinas College. He received his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Dallas. Finley has lectured widely and authored articles on philosophical anthropology, metaphysics, gender and sexuality, phenomenology, Edith Stein, and Thomas Aquinas. In 2017 he was awarded a grant from the John Templeton Foundation to pursue collaborative research on human sexuality from the standpoints of science, medicine, philosophy, and theology.

Jason M. Craig works and writes from his small dairy farm in Western, NC.  He is a co-founder of Fraternus and founding editor of Sword&Spade magazine.  He has a Masters in Theology from the Augustine Institute, but cherishes an Associates in Landscaping a bit more.  Along with many articles and contributions to work on localism, agrarianism, and rites of passage, Craig is the author of Leaving Boyhood Behind (OSV, 2017), The Liturgy of the Land (TAN, 2024), The Traditional Virtues of St. Thomas Aquinas (TAN,2023), and a co-editor of The American Catholic Land Movement (TAN, 2025).  He has eight children and a wife way out of his league. He is also known to claim his family invented bourbon.  

Reuben Slife is one of the editors of New Polity magazine. He is the editor of America in the Mystery of Christ in the Church by David L. Schindler, forthcoming from New Polity Press, and currently learning the Polish language for translating Pope St. John Paul II’s The Theology of the Body. He is also the president of the Poor Players of Steubenville, a theater company. Reuben lives in Steubenville, Ohio.

Due to popular demand, Mini-Presentations are back. We want to hear how you are bringing Catholic Social Teaching into your life. On Thursday night, we’ll have presentations on what you’re doing—starting homesteads, divesting of 401k’s, winning political offices across America.

Submit an application to make a short presentation below!

On Saturday evening, we will have a closing reception, with dinner and drinks at the beautiful third floor of Leonardo's Coffeehouse in downtown Steubenville. Open to all conference participants! Enjoy an evening of great conversation and friends. Reception begins at 6:30pm. 

You can add a ticket to the reception when you register: just click “Add Closing Reception” at checkout. Or if you've already registered for the conference, you can register here.