Christian Study Center of Gainesville » Blog Archive » The Eclipse and Re-Appearance of the Human in Higher Education

The Eclipse and Re-Appearance
of the Human in Higher Education

[Monday Class]

Mondays at 7:30pm (see schedule details below)

(Audio files of sessions at bottom.)

This eight week series running through the fall semester will seek to elucidate the story of the human in higher education. By doing so, we hope to understand how the human has slipped from view in the modern university and how the human might also be re-appearing. In recent decades various forces in the university, such as increasingly narrow research specializations; trends in academic discourse and method; and commercial, technological, and cultural pressures, have mitigated against the human and have pushed the university toward a post-human future. While the class will explore these tendencies and pressures, however, the class will also remind us that what is eclipsed is not gone but only hidden from view. With this in mind, speakers will consider ways that scholars can recover and re-affirm the human in ways that re-invigorate higher education and promote human flourishing.

After an introduction that raises the question about how the human is faring in the university, our speakers will consider issues along disciplinary lines that include genetics, linguistics and the social sciences, critical theory, and medicine. In the final weeks of the class our speakers will explore the potential for a Catholic model of higher education to serve in the secular university and the humanizing presence of Jewish educational philosophy. The class will conclude with a consideration of the humanities in the early modern era and how the humanities might revitalize the contemporary university.

Flier pdf front

Flier pdf back

Instructors
September 8
Richard Horner, Exec. Director, Christian Study Center
“Thinking About Being Human in a Post-Humanist World”

Manuscript from this session: Thinking About Being Human - Richard V. Horner

September 15
Richard Buggs, Department of Botany and Zoology, University of Florida
“Is Molecular Genetics Redefining What it Means to be Human?”

Notes to accompany the audio from this session (see below): Genetics Handout

September 22
Brent Henderson, Department of Linguistics, University of Florida
“What Makes Us Human? Two Perspectives from Linguistics”

September 29
Manuel Vasquez, Department of Religion
“Critical Theory and ‘the Rage Against Humanism and the Enlightenment Legacy’”

October 13
Jay Lynch and Heather Harrell, College of Medicine, University of Florida
“Student Reflection as a Means to Restore the Human in the Medical Care of Human Beings”

October 20
John Gillespie, St. Augustine Catholic Church
“Can a Catholic Model of Education Serve the Secular University?”

October 27
Sheldon Isenberg, Department of Religion, University of Florida
“Learning in the Four Worlds: An Integrative Approach From Judaism”

November 3
John Sommerville, Emeritus Professor, Department of History, University of Florida
“Re-appearance of the Human, the Humanities, and Christian Humanism”

Audio files of sessions:

Horner - "Thinking About Being Human in a Post-humanist World" [61:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Buggs - "Is Molecular Genetics Redefining What it Means to be Human?" [61:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Henderson - "What Makes Us Human? Two Perspectives from Linguistics" [50:25m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Vasquez - "Critical Theory and 'the Rage Against Enlightenment Legacy'" [72:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Categories: Audio, Events, Monday Class

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