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Providence College: What Do the Humanities Do?
October 21, 2022 @ 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
On October 21, 2022, the Frederick Douglass Project at Providence College will host Eric Adler for a discussion of the humanities and why they matter:
In the late nineteenth century, the United States witnessed the so-called Battle of the Classics in which educators fought over the role of Latin and ancient Greek in college curricula. Contemporary apologists for the modern humanities present the same skills-based defenses of their subjects that traditionalists in the Battle of the Classics provided for the classical languages. And yet defenders of the humanities need to reconnect with what the humanities do — to articulate the unique and essential contribution that humanism makes to an educated person.
Friday, October 21, 2022 • 3:00 PM EDT
Ruane 105 • Providence College
Eric Adler is a Professor of Classics and Chair of the Classics Department at the University of Maryland. His scholarly interests include Roman historiography, Latin prose, the history of classical scholarship, and the history of the humanities. He is the author of three books including The Battle of the Classics: How a Nineteenth-Century Debate Can Save the Humanities Today (Oxford, 2020) and Classics, the Culture Wars, and Beyond (Michigan, 2016). He has taught at Rice University, the University of Minnesota, and Connecticut College. In 2020, he joined the editorial board of Humanitas.
Learn more about Eric Adler >>
From the program:
The Frederick Douglass Project is an initiative of the Humanities Program at Providence College, with support from the Jack Miller Center, which aims to cultivate in students the skills of reasoned debate and persuasion necessary for a healthy and free society. The Frederick Douglass Project promotes a greater understanding of the importance of rational disputation and persuasion in our democracy, and offers students the opportunity to practice those arts. To that end, it sponsors a series of speaker events and writing workshops culminating in a persuasive Essay & Public Speaking contest held in the Spring semester.
Learn more about the Frederick Douglass Project >>
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