Dr. Caleb Karges serves as the Dean of Students and Associate Professor of Humanities at Luther Classical College. He brings over a decade of experience in scholarship, teaching, and student life in Lutheran higher education. He received his Ph.D. in Modern History from the University of St. Andrews (Scotland) in 2016. Specializing in European diplomatic and military history, Dr. Karges also relishes the opportunity provided by Luther Classical College to teach broadly and to connect ideas across disciplines in the way that only a liberal arts education can. His dedication to these principles won him the recognition from the student body of Concordia University Irvine as the 2019 CUI Bono? Professor of the Year. Dr. Karges and his wife Jennifer have four children. They enjoy travel, spending time outdoors, and opening their home to students.
Describe your background in classical education and the classical tradition.
My first exposure to the classical tradition came in taking history, philosophy, and theology classes at Concordia—Irvine. I found myself sitting at the feet of a group of maverick professors who cared about academic excellence and taught students to treasure the Classical Renaissance Humanist tradition all while steeped in the Lutheran confessions and liturgy. They combated the credentialing and fiery hoop-jumping of progressive education, blowing up the idea that college is just a harder version of high school. Instead, they preached ad fontes, that is, going to the sources and learning the original languages. Rather than read a $200 textbook that merely reported dead facts to be regurgitated, these professors forced me to grapple with the big thinkers and big ideas of humanity. Instead of reading about the Enlightenment, we read many of the great works of the Enlightenment. They showed me that true teaching came not from the application of “pedagogy” but from mastery of the content.
The next logical step was to put the liberal arts into practice and go back to the sources. My mentors guided me to starting a doctorate at the University of St. Andrews, where I trod in the path of the great historians: traveling like Herodotus, trawling archives like Tacitus, and always trying to get a complete picture like Thucydides.
Talk about your teaching background, particularly your time at Concordia—Irvine. What did you enjoy about your time there? How did it prepare you for your roles at LCC?
I taught in four situations that prepared me for LCC. I worked as a part-time middle school literature teacher at Bethlehem Lutheran School in Carson City in the year between my masters’ and doctorate. Not only did I get to practice exposing students to great texts, but I got to work with a tight knit, mostly Lutheran staff. I owe a lot to the whole crew at BLS; they were instrumental in getting me to be comfortable in a classroom. I did a little teaching at St. Andrews, where I got exposure to teaching students at an elite level. That was followed by the exact opposite: I was an adjunct at a community college in northern Nevada, where I learned how to teach a less-than-prepared student body. This all prepared me to return to CUI as a faculty member.
While at CUI, I had the privilege of working with a phenomenal group of faculty members dedicated to bringing the best of the Western tradition to the student body. There was a lot of discussion and work to make cross-disciplinary connections inside and outside of the classroom. The integrated curriculum and great-texts approach helped prepare me for LCC’s curriculum. My dedication to the approach garnered me the honor of Professor of the Year in 2019. The best parts of my years there were the people, namely my colleagues and my students. Teaching in the history department, being involved in the faculty-student liberal arts club, and working in the international student dorm allowed me to build relationships and friendships with a number of committed and talented students. They made the job fun.
How did you come to be at LCC? What drew you to the small “start-up” over the established Concordia, so to speak?
The short answer is it seems like God opened a door and pushed me through it! LCC caught my attention for a number of reasons:
1. LCC’s commitment to being unabashedly Lutheran, Classical, and Conservative in its approach to higher education. There was no milquetoast hemming and hawing about the college’s values, no handwringing about the need to be diverse, and no desire to pull punches in the fear of causing offense when speaking the truth. With everyone on the same page regarding what the ultimate truth is, I knew that I would have colleagues who were not actively working against the faith in other classrooms. There would be no pressure to move into a position of moral relativism to avoid offending non-Christian students.
2. LCC’s commitment to academic excellence, and its model to avoid the pitfalls of so many colleges that drive them to mediocrity. By being a part of a small start-up, I knew I could take an important seat at the table and help drive LCC towards excellence in the classroom and in scholarly production by the faculty. Part of the classical approach is that one’s professors are masters of their fields, not just people who learned how to teach a subject. Mastery comes by doing. LCC’s commitment to sustaining itself through the patronage of the church rather than through collecting tuition dollars allows it to accomplish this. The tuition-driven model compromises the academic enterprise, as colleges are forced to lower standards to keep tuition dollars flowing in. Professors are judged by the number of classes they teach, reduced to cogs keeping students running through the four-year machine. The result is schizophrenic classrooms with a diverse set of abilities, high professor turnover, and a lack of scholarly production. One of the great tragedies I have witnessed in my career is watching people who could have been major thinkers in their fields have their scholarly careers quashed by teaching large numbers of classes to students who could barely care to be there.
3. When LCC says they are committed to supporting the church and family, they put their money where their mouth is. I quickly found that the college is willing to do what it takes to allow a professor to be a good teacher, scholar, and, most importantly, provider for a family. LCC gave me an opportunity to have a stake in its success and give my kids a better chance for their future.
4. Wyoming and its people are a major attraction. Being a Nevadan, I’ve always loved the Intermountain West, but attending the 2024 Christian Culture Conference sold me. I met the people here and learned that this is a beautiful and supportive community of believers. My experience since then has confirmed it far beyond my original estimation. As for Wyoming, one of my former students in California put it best: “Ah! A state with more freedom.”
What stands out in your first academic year teaching and serving as Dean of Students at LCC?
1. The excellence and commitment of the student body. I don’t have to spend time defusing hostile audiences. I can push students to higher standards—I don’t have to lower expectations for unprepared students. The students have been a joy to teach. They are eager, diligent, respectful, and fun.
2. Working with a tightly knit staff makes hanging out with colleagues fun but also allows us to easily keep an eye on the students’ well-being. We’re able to have a much more direct and (hopefully) positive impact on the lives of students.
3. Being distinctly Lutheran in our ethos, values, and population is intellectually freeing. In the past, there were things I could only think and not say.
4. It has been a joy to work with students outside of the classroom in terms of running events and making them a part of my family’s life.
What would you say to someone who might be on the fence about attending LCC? We don’t deny there are certain risks involved in enrolling here that one wouldn’t necessarily have elsewhere. In short, despite the risks, why LCC?
If my own journey to LCC can’t compel you, then I will leave you with this. When you read the classics and engage with giants of Western Civilization, you will find yourself face to face with men and women who were willing to push into the unknown and risk failure (often of the catastrophic kind). Alexander the Great did not conquer because it made him more comfortable. Frodo did not take the ring to Mount Doom because it was the easy thing to do. The Apostles did not preach Christ for the easy fame and fortune. Martin Luther did not kick off the Reformation because he had a foolproof ten-step guide to guaranteed success. Nobody accomplished anything of note by being comfortable and not taking risks.
