Dr. Christine Rosen, author and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute
On Monday, March 2, Hampton Roads Academy (HRA) will welcome Dr. Christine Rosen, an expert on technology, culture, and human behavior, for the next installment of the school’s At the Helm speaker series. Dr. Rosen will share her insights during a conversation with Assistant Head of School and Director of Upper School Ben Rous about how adults and children can reclaim analog human skills and values in the face of a digital revolution. The presentation, to be held on HRA’s campus at 6:00 pm, is free and open to the public.
At the Helm provides a dynamic platform for thought-provoking conversations that extend beyond HRA to engage the wider Hampton Roads community. Connecting attendees with insights, resources, and expertise, the series reflects the school’s broader impact as a local center of teaching and learning excellence.
Launched in January 2025, At the Helm has previously featured insider perspectives on the college application process from deans, directors, and vice presidents of admissions at regional institutions, as well as a presentation on the future of artificial intelligence (AI) by renowned educational technology researcher Dr. Helen Crompton.
While Dr. Crompton’s talk highlighted the possibilities new technologies will unlock in the classroom and the professional world, Dr. Rosen’s upcoming appearance will focus on the abilities—from handwriting and face-to-face interaction to patience and independent judgment—that human beings have allowed to deteriorate with the adoption of fast, efficient, and convenient digital tools. Drawing on her acclaimed book The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World, Dr. Crompton will explore how and why individuals must defend human values in the era of algorithms and AI.
Holding a Ph.D. in American intellectual history from Emory University, Dr. Rosen is currently a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where her work focuses on the intersection of history, society, culture, technology, and human behavior. She is also a monthly columnist for Commentary magazine, one of the cohosts of The Commentary Magazine Daily Podcast, a fellow at the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, and a senior editor at the New Atlantis. She was previously a distinguished visiting scholar at the Library of Congress.
Dr. Rosen has authored or co-authored numerous books, including The Extinction of Experience (W. W. Norton, 2024), which has been translated into more than five languages and was named an Esquire Best Book of 2024 and a Telegraph UK Best Book of 2025, as well as My Fundamentalist Education: A Memoir of a Divine Girlhood (PublicAffairs, 2005) and Preaching Eugenics: Religious Leaders and the American Eugenics Movement (Oxford University Press, 2004). Her opinion pieces, articles, and reviews have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the National Review, the New England Journal of Medicine, the New York Times, Politico, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post, among other outlets.
Partnering with Dr. Rosen for At the Helm, according to Rous, reflects HRA’s unwavering commitment to helping students develop critical thinking, interpersonal skills, and other “traditional” but still vital competencies, even as they take advantage of digital tools to streamline and enhance their learning.
“Our goal is to empower our students to set themselves apart through a mastery of both digital and analog skills,” Rous said. “We want to help teachers and parents guide students as they embrace the new without sacrificing the old. That balance will be the key to success in college and in the careers of the future.”
When he sits down with Dr. Rosen, Rous explained, he hopes to start conversations among educators and families throughout the region about the role technology plays in our lives and learning, laying the foundations of a model that other schools can emulate.
Interested attendees are asked to RSVP for At the Helm by emailing cpoole@hra.org.
