Throughout its existence, the Association for Core Texts and Courses (ACTC) has asserted its commitment to the need for humans to come together to speak about the scientific, the political, and the artistic in order to live together in an enlightened fashion. In 2004, ACTC's Tenth Annual Conference convened to re-affirm and re-examine the value of serious reading and discussion focused through core texts. Participants articulated the various ways by which core text education in the liberal arts constructs and supports different expressions of community on college campuses around the world. Presenters asked whether it is better to contemplate the arts simply as expressions of cultures and traditions or to cultivate them, taking the risk that what is valued in artistic expressions might be changed by the inventions of teachers and the students they encourage. The essays collected here reflect the responses of the diverse group of ACTC's members, all of whom support the idea of liberal core text education with the self-conscious awareness of the challenges facing liberal education in the modern academy.
Throughout its existence, the Association for Core Texts and Courses (ACTC) has asserted its commitment to the need for humans to come together to speak about the scientific, the political, and the artistic in order to live together in an enlightened fashion. In 2004, ACTC's Tenth Annual Conference convened to re-affirm and re-examine the value of serious reading and discussion focused through core texts. Participants articulated the various ways by which core text education in the liberal arts constructs and supports different expressions of community on college campuses around the world. Presenters asked whether it is better to contemplate the arts simply as expressions of cultures and traditions or to cultivate them, taking the risk that what is valued in artistic expressions might be changed by the inventions of teachers and the students they encourage. The essays collected here reflect the responses of the diverse group of ACTC's members, all of whom support the idea of liberal core text education with the self-conscious awareness of the challenges facing liberal education in the modern academy.
Chapter 1 Introduction Part 2 Community: History and Forms Chapter 3 Humanizing the Technological Vision: Core Learning and the Relation of the Sciences and Humanities Chapter 4 Plato's Crito and the Development of Community Chapter 5 Augustine's Intellectual Conversion Part 6 Views of Community Chapter 7 Beowulf: The Other Epic Chapter 8 Montesquieu and the Problematic Character of Modern Citizenship Chapter 9 Kleos and Kitsch: Postcard Patriotism in Derek Walcott's Omeros Chapter 10 Lyric and the Skill of Life Chapter 11 Achieving (Comm) Unity in Difference Through the Core Text Part 12 Literary Experiences of Community Chapter 13 The Music of Democracy: Core Values in Core Texts Chapter 14 Nature and Tyranny in Aristophanes' Birds: The Real Meal Deal Chapter 15 Lyrics Breath: Taking Seriously the Trope of Immortality in Shakespeare's Sonnets Chapter 16 Whose Underground?: Notes on Locating Dostoyevsky Part 17 Community: New Perspectives Chapter 18 Art, Integrating Disciplinse, and Liberal Education: Imagining the Possible with Botticelli Chapter 19 Culture and Patriarchy: The Egalitarian Vision of Woolf's Three Guineas Chapter 20 Spoken from the Heart: Apprehending the Passion of Harriet Beecher Stowe Chapter 21 Constructing and Deconstructing the Gospel of John Part 22 Building Communities: Possibilities and Problems Chapter 23 The "Mythical Method" as a Means to Community in Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral Chapter 24 Captain Vere, Liberal Learning, and Leadership Chapter 25 "Shall I Ever Attain My Heart's Desire?" or How a Flexible Approach to Core Texts is Building Layers of Community at Hanover College Chapter 26 Educating for Justice: Service Learning and Plato's Republic Part 27 Bridging the Gaps Between the Humanities and Sciences Chapter 28 Natural Philosophy as a Liberal Art Chapter 29 Euclid as Propadeutic Chapter 30 Stealing the Power and Bridging the Gap: Ellison's Invisible Man as Core Text Chapter 31 Connecting Principles in Adam Smith's History of Astronomy Chapter 32 Darwin Redux: Great Texts and the Natural Sciences Revisited
Ronald J. Weber has been the director of the humanities (formerly Western Civilization) program at the University of Texas at El Paso since 1997. His Ph.D. is in ancient history from the University of Wisconsin. J. Scott Lee has been the executive director and co-founder of the Association for Core Texts and Courses since 1994. His Ph.D. is from the Committee on the History of Culture, the University of Chicago.
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