Yale Bulletin and Calendar

October 6, 2006|Volume 35, Number 5

Conference celebrates 60th year
of Yale's Directed Studies Program

University presidents, faculty, alumni and students will come together to discuss the evolution of general education over the past 60 years, as well as what the future holds, at a conference being held Friday, Oct. 13, at the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale, 53 Wall St.

The event, which is free and open to the public, also celebrates the 60th year of Yale's Directed Studies Program, the University's undergraduate program centered on the great books that have shaped Western civilization.

Titled "The Continuing Dialogue: Honoring Directed Studies at 60," the conference will include a panel of current and former university presidents from across the country; a faculty debate about the future of "the great books" in the modern university; and a discussion between current and former Directed Studies students and faculty about the history of the program.

Speakers will include President Richard C. Levin, former University of Chicago President (and former Yale President) Hanna Holborn Gray, Hampshire College President Ralph Hexter, Harvard Professor Harvey Mansfield, Yale Sterling Professors Donald Kagan and William Nordhaus, and many more.

Judge José A. Cabranes of the Second Circuit United States Court of Appeals, former general counsel and trustee of Yale, will deliver a keynote address titled "Fostering Judgment: Sixty Years of Well-Directed Studies."

The program will conclude with a reception at the President's House honoring the first-ever reunion of Directed Studies graduates. Alumni from the first year of the Directed Studies Program are among those planning to attend.

A complete program schedule is available at www.yale.edu/directedstudies/alumni.htmll.

Directed Studies is an interdisciplinary freshman program focused on the foundational works of western civilization. Often described as a centerpiece of Yale College, the Directed Studies Program is based at the Whitney Humanities Center. The program consists of three intertwined year-long courses -- literature, philosophy and history/politics -- for a select group of 125 students. The fall semester features principal works of classical Athens and Rome and the Judeo-Christian tradition, and the spring term includes great works of the Renaissance through the Modern era.

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