LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University, an early leader in liberal arts education, will host a faculty seminar titled Twenty-first Century Liberal Education: A Contested Concept, July 24-27. The 15 seminar participants were selected from a pool of over 40 applicants from prominent liberal arts colleges throughout the country. They reflect the diversity within the professorate at liberal arts colleges and include faculty members from Hanover, Wheaton, Davidson, Earlham, Wofford, Oglethorpe, and the University of Richmond.
Seminar sessions include “The Historic Background to the Contemporary Debates,” “The Classical Tradition in the 20th Century: Robert Maynard Hutchins,” “The Rival Tradition: John Dewey,” “The Classical Tradition Redux: Allan Bloom” and “The Purposes of Liberal Education: Varieties of Individual Development.” Participants are asked to consider the application of liberal education principles to enhance their own effectiveness as college and university teachers – in the classroom, in the preparation of course offerings and in the construction of curricula at their academic institutions.
Richard H. Ekman, president of the Council of Independent Colleges, will give the opening address, “Evolving and Durable Dimensions of the Liberal Arts: Both Good and Bad News.” The plenary speaker is Stephen Salkever, the Mary Katherine Woodworth Professor of Political Science at Bryn Mawr College. His address is entitled, “Keeping Our Difficult Balance: Hopes, Fears, and Puzzles About the Future of Liberal Education.”
Through this seminar, Transylvania University and its Bingham Program for Excellence in Teaching, seeks to contribute to a national conversation on the idea of liberal education and the mission of the liberal arts college in twenty-first century America.
For more information, contact the public relations office at (859) 233-8120.