Frontispiece for Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, 1651

In 2007-08 and 2008-09, forty-eight first-year students embarked on pioneering and rewarding journeys through the humanities. In a series of innovative courses the students investigated how diverse thinkers have—at different times and in dissimilar ways—answered one of humanity’s most enduring questions: What is the nature of “the good society”? Students in the program confront the works of great authors and artists—as well as the aspirations of ordinary citizens—who have asked themselves how people might best organize their collective life.

We are inviting YOU, members of the Class of 2013, to apply to join the program in the fall of 2009. The program will accept applications in May 2009.   This will be the third year of the Kaplan program, developed especially for first-year students in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Communication. It is open to students of virtually all interests: those drawn to the natural and social sciences, as well as those who plan to major in the humanities. We hope you will consider taking this opportunity to explore the humanities under the guidance of some of Northwestern’s most prominent faculty members in an innovative course format.

In Fall 2009, students will take “‘The Mirror of Custom’: Comedy and The Arts of Living in Society,” taught by Professors Kathryn Bosher (Classics), Thomas Simpson (French & Italian), and William West (English).  In this pair of linked courses—a team-taught lecture class and an associated seminar—students will investigate how comedies do not just mirror the forms and ideals of the societies that produce them; instead, they show ways of living within those norms and structures, of reforming them where they fall short, and of accommodating oneself to them where one can. To paraphrase Marx, writers have invented worlds, but the point of the comedy seems to be to change them.  Comedy thus is deeply concerned with the ethics, morals, politics, and practices of the good society.

In Winter 2010, students will enroll in “The Good Society and the Question of Species,” team-taught by Professors Susan Pearson (History), Laurie Shannon (English), and Mary Weismantel (Anthropology, Spanish & Portuguese).  In this pair of linked courses—a team-taught lecture class and an associated seminar—this course will do more than just add animals to our definition of “society,” or the merciful treatment of animals to our notion of what it means to be “good.” It will show how considering the relationship between humans and animals changes fundamental premises that underlie much scholarly inquiry, such as oppositions between “nature” and “culture,” or between the “humanities,” the “social sciences,” and the “natural sciences.” This course will bring together the perspectives of three disciplines in which these reconsiderations have been taking place: history, literature, and anthropology. In each of these, we will look at the ways in which animals have been imagined and represented in myth, literature and art; the actual traces of animal lives and deaths; the social geographies of human/animal interaction, within societies past and present; and the complex interplay of those imaginary and lived social worlds.

"Lincoln," by Robert Silvers, creator of photomosaic images (click here for larger image; then click on new image to zoom).

In Fall 2008, students took “Brave New Worlds,” taught by Professors Henry Binford (History), Kasey Evans (English), and Carl Smith (English, American Studies). In this pair of linked courses—a team-taught lecture class and an associated seminar—students investigated the strikingly divergent visions of what constitutes a good society during three major historical moments in Western culture: the Renaissance, the Enlightenment in Europe and America, and the Technological Revolution in Britain and the United States.

In Winter 2009, the course was “Black Freedom/African Justice,” and was taught by Professors Sherwin Bryant (African American Studies), Yarí Pérez Marín (Spanish and Portuguese), and David Schoenbrun (History). This pair of linked courses—again a team-taught lecture class and an associated seminar—examined the competing visions of good governance and the good life in Africa and the Americas. They examined art, film, literary texts, legal codices, medical tracts, and travelers' accounts, dating from the colonial era to the present day—many drawn from Northwestern's world-renowned Africana Collection.

For information about the experience of the inaugural class of 2007-08, turn to their web page.   

Thomas Hicks, Peaceable Kingdom

As indicated above, both the Fall and Winter courses are always composed of two linked classes that combine a lecture format (co-taught by the three faculty members) with a coordinated freshman seminar (with each faculty member teaching one of three seminars of 16 students each). Students will therefore receive a total of four class credits. Students in the program will fulfill the Weinberg requirement that they take two freshman seminars. They will also receive credit for two Distribution courses; one in Area IV (Historical Studies) and one in Area VI (Literature and Fine Arts). In the spring, students will meet occasionally and/or attend programs that draw out the themes of the program. Throughout the year students will take advantage of the intellectual, cultural, and artistic resources of Chicago.

Students should be aware that the program demands a major commitment of scholarly effort on their part, but that its rewards, in terms of intellectual growth and course credit, are commensurate. Above all, the program offers students a chance to consider how major thinkers—as well as ordinary citizens—have expressed their vision of "the good society,” and do so in the company of a small group of some of Northwestern finest students: a kind of "good society" of its own. Students who complete the program will have richly earned their designation as Kaplan Humanities Scholars.

Interested students can learn more about the program by viewing our brochure or by consulting the FAQ.

Yours,
Jules Law
Director, Kaplan Humanities Scholars Program

Jules Law is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature.  His essays on Victorian literature, James Joyce, and literary theory have appeared in PMLA , Critical Inquiry , SIGNS , NLH , ELH , Nineteenth Century Literature , and other journals.  His book The Rhetoric of Empiricism traces the philosophical figures of surface, depth, and reflection throughout the aesthetic theory of the 18th and 19th centuries.  He is currently completing two books, one on the politics of fluids in the Victorian novel, and the other on the epistemology of narrative figures.  He has received numerous teaching awards, most recently the Charles Deering McCormick Professorship of Teaching Excellence.

Students with questions should contact the program office, at: kaplanscholars@northwestern.edu