The Abigail Adams Institute

20 Pages·2012·10.08 MB·English

A B I G A I L A D A M S I N S T I T U T E
The Abigail Adams Institute is an academic, not-for-profit institute
dedicated to providing supplemental humanistic education to the
Harvard intellectual community. Inspired by the capacious learning and
judicious insight of Massachusetts native Abigail Adams, whose wise
counsel helped shape the early American Republic, the Institute engages
both classical traditions and contemporary thought in a sustained, open,
and rigorous dialogue. Our programming includes seminars, workshops,
lectures, readings groups, intellectual retreats, mentoring, and more. You
can find us at 14 Arrow Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
G E N E R A L I N T R O D U C T I O N
This guide is meant to be useful to upperclassmen and young alumni
any Harvard student who wants to who believe that becoming an
make the best use of the College’s educated person requires a right
academic resources in the inclination and a lot of diligent
humanities. It highlights some of work on the part of the student.
Harvard’s truly outstanding courses The contributors are all deeply
and teachers. grateful for the tradition of learning
that they encountered and
The guide is also meant to provide assimilated at Harvard. This is one
a framework for thinking about small contribution that they are
what a humanistic education can making toward a good beginning of
look like in the twenty-first century, your education.
and to offer some practical advice
on how to get such an education at Acquiring cultural literacy takes
a large modern research university time, thought, effort, and a proper
like Harvard. We have divided the orientation to knowledge. It is in
subject material by areas and forms college that even a lifelong student
of inquiry in a way that, we hope, has the opportunity to develop a
will prompt you to think in big and taste for genuine understanding.
broad terms about your education. Your college years can be a time of
grounded and well-ordered
The courses included in the Guide intellectual growth. We hope our
have gained their spots on the Course Guide can be of use to you
recommendations of in this endeavor.
O R D E R o f C O N T E N T S
Religion & Philosophy
Classics
Literature & Art
History
The Occident
Foreign Cultures
Government & Politics
Economy
Learning Beyond the Classroom
List of Illustrations
R e f l e c t o n t h e d e e p e s t
R e l i g i o n &
s o u r c e s o f o u r b e l i e f s
P h i l o s o p h y
a b o u t G o d a n d t h e w o r l d .
PHIL 106: Augustine, Doyle
A proseminar on the philosophy of St Augustine of Hippo and its evolution.
CULTBLF 31: Saints, Heretics & Atheists: An Historical
Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion, McDonough
A survey of perennial themes in Western philosophy and religion.
CLS-STUDY 132: Classics, Christianity & Islam, Yolles
An introduction to the relationship between Classical, Christian, and Islamic
texts through the ages.
CULTBLF 39: Hebrew Bible, Cohen
A survey of the major books and ideas of the Hebrew Bible (the Old
Testament).
ETHRSON 31: The Philosopher & The Tyrant, Damrosch
Love of wisdom and love of rule. An exploration of their relationship with
the help of core civilizational texts.
Raphael, School of Athens, c. 1509–1511. 1
G a i n p r o f i c i e n c y i n
a n c i e n t G r e e k a n d L a t i n ,
C l a s s i c s
a n d t h e n r e a d t h e c l a s s i c
t e x t s i n t h e o r i g i n a l .
LATIN (or GREEK) 112A (or B): History of Latin (or Greek)
Literature I (or II)
A two-part series of courses covering the great authors of Classical
literature in the original language.
AESTHINT 21: Virgil’s Poetry and its Reception, Thomas
A study the poetry of Virgil, with attention to with his influences and to
his poetry’s legacy.
MEDLATIN 106: Augustine, Yolles
An introduction to the large corpus of St. Augustine, selecting from
many works.
LATIN (or GREEK) H (or K): Introduction to (or Advanced)
Prose Composition
These courses teach students to write in Latin or Greek, primarily in
Classical styles.
2 Gaspar van Wittel (Vanvitelli), The Colosseum Seen from the Southeast, c. 1700.
L i t e r a t u r e
& A r t
A c q u i r e a n a p p r e c i a t i o n o f t h e b e a u t y a n d
p o w e r o f l a n g u a g e a n d i m a g e . L e a r n t o
w r i t e c l e a r l y a n d l o g i c a l l y .
AESTHINT 15: Elements of Rhetoric,
Engell
Studies the practice and importance of Jim McGlone ’15,
rhetoric in the West, with examples and History and Classics
exercises.
Professor Whittington
presents her subjects as
CLS-STDY 110: Roman Literature in
sources of truth and beauty,
the Age of Augustus [in translation],
and does so with infectious
Thomas
joy. She is steeped in the
This course studies the great authors of
classics and versatile
Augustan Rome, in translation into
enough to lead enriching
English.
considerations of great
books from many eras: in
ENGLISH 111: Epic: From Homer to
other words, she is a true
Star Wars, Whittington humanist. Any course of
A study of epic literature through six hers is surely well worth
significant works in the genre: the Iliad taking.
and Odyssey, the Aeneid, Paradise Lost,
Middlemarch, and Star Wars.
François Joseph Heim, Defeat of the Cimbri and the Teutons by Marius, c. 1853. 3
L i t e r a t u r e
& A r t
continued
MUSIC 1: 1000 Years of Listening,
Dolan
A survey of great Western music,
from Gregorian chant through
Beethoven to the present day.
Victor Mezacapa ’18, Classics
VES 107: Studies of the Built North
American Environment since 1580,
Music 1 takes students on a
Stilgoe
whirlwind tour through ten
North America as an evolving visual
centuries of music, sacred and
environment is analyzed as a work of
secular. You will find no
art.
more beautiful way to learn
many things that every
Harvard graduate ought to
know.
4 Circle of Jacques-Louis David, Calliope Mourning Homer, 1812.
D e v e l o p a n e m p h a t i c
u n d e r s t a n d i n g o f e r a s
o t h e r t h a n o n e ’ s o w n .
H i s t o r y
R e a d a n d e v a l u a t e t h e
s t o r i e s p e o p l e t e l l a b o u t
t h e m s e l v e s .
Daniel Lage '11,
History and Science
HAA 11: Landmarks of World
Architecture, Connors Don't miss out on the
Examines great works of architecture opportunity to immerse
along with their unique aesthetic, yourself in a course in
cultural, and historical milieus. history of art and
architecture while at
SOCWORLD 41: Medieval Europe, Harvard. The chance to learn
McCormick from art historians about
This course examines transformations classic works of art and to
view many of them in the
in Europe between the fall of Rome
Harvard Art Museums and
and the Italian Renaissance.
the Museum of Fine Arts is a
real privilege!
René Théodore Berthon, Capitulation at Ulm, c. 1805-1815. 5
H i s t o r y
continued
SCIPHUNV 17: The Einstein
Jim McGlone ’15,
Revolution, Galison
History and Classics
A study of physics in the 20th and
Professor Hankins brings a 21st centuries, using Einstein as an
love of Western culture and archetype.
tradition to his lectures. If
you are interested in pursuing HIST 1144: The Renaissance in
truth through consideration
Florence, Hankins
of the Western tradition, his
A study of Florence in its
courses simply cannot be
Renaissance, from the time of Dante
missed!
to Machiavelli.
6 Maestro de Zafra, Saint Michael Archangel, c. 1495-1500.
T h e O c c i d e n t
U n d e r s t a n d a n d a p p r e c i a t e t h e e f f o r t t o
t r a n s l a t e a n d t r a n s f o r m t h e c l a s s i c a l
t r a d i t i o n i n t o w e s t e r n c i v i l i z a t i o n .
CULTBLF 22: The Ancient Greek
Hero, Nagy Meredith Jones ’19, Classics
A close look at the human condition,
as viewed through the lens of classical Latin H (introductory
Latin composition): I have
Greek civilization.
not come across a better
method of learning Latin
HIST 1011: The World of the
grammar and syntax than
Roman Empire, Dench
through composition. I've
An introduction to Roman history
grown to understand – and
from the mid-third century BC to the
appreciate – the work of
mid-third century AD.
Latin authors more as a result
of this class.
CULTBLF 14: Human Being and
the Sacred in the History of the
West, Kelly
This course explores the themes of
human being and the sacred as they
are manifested in some of the greatest
works in the history of the West.
Giovanni Antonio Canal (Canaletto), Piazza San Marco, Venice, c. 1730-1734. 7