Citizens, Thinkers, Writers is a residential program offered by Yale’s Humanities Program as part of Yale’s Pathways to the Arts & Humanities initiative, in consultation with The Education Studies Program. The residential program aims to foster a small community of intellectually ambitious students that will outlast the two weeks of the seminar. The faculty, residential teaching assistants, and coordinator will remain in touch with the students through the 2016-17 academic year to support students in the process of applying to college.
This summer twelve rising seniors from the New Haven public schools were invited to participate in the 2016 seminar from July11th -22nd. Two professors led the seminar, guiding students through discussions of thought-provoking texts by Plato, Thucydides, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Jane Addams, W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King, Jr., Hannah Arendt, and others. The seminar discussions focused on questions of enduring importance, linking historical writings on civic life to contemporary reflections on life in our city. What is the best way for individuals to live together in communities? How can citizens think critically about their societies? What basic agreements lie beneath our political communities, and what happens when those agreements are broken? What are the origins of ideals such as “freedom” and “equality” and what prevents us from achieving them?
Humanities program brings New Haven students to Yale to study, reflect on civic life
July 26, 2016