Are you a Bucknell student interested in intellectual conversation on great books from different cultures? Want to deepen your liberal-arts experience while at Bucknell in discussion with other students?
Great Books are books that are meaningful when read again and again, that are recognized as significant across cultures and generations, and that form an indispensable part of liberal arts education and even can become integral to our life experiences.
Consider applying for the monthly Great Books Seminar AY 2024-2025, facilitated by Prof. Paul Siewers of English Literary Studies. Free books and snacks provided, no written work but with monthly scholarship-through-discussion, all years and backgrounds welcome, no experience needed. Books and snacks provided free. And you can propose and apply for a Great Books independent study with Prof. Siewers in conjunction with the seminar, for partial or full credit, with added reading, written, and tutorial work. Non-credit options are also available for a certificate in Great Books study and a $500 stipend.
Please contact Prof. Siewers for information on options at asiewers@bucknell.edu. Spaces are limited, so please apply soon.
The monthly book discussions across academic year 2024-2025 will include “Notes from the Underground” by Fyodor Dostoevsky; “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston; “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare; Homer, “The Odyssey”; Linda Hogan, “Solar Storms”; C.S. Lewis, “Till We Have Faces.”
At the monthly seminar we’ll be reading and discussing the above relatively short texts from African-American, British, Greek, Native American, and Russian literatures, in an environment inclusive of “different cultures and diverse perspectives,” following Bucknell’s mission statement and free-expression policies. Co-sponsored by the Bucknell Program for American Literature (bpal.blogs.bucknell.edu) and the Open Discourse Coalition (opendiscoursecoalition.org).
About the Instructor: Prof./Rev. Paul Siewers is an award-winning Bucknell literature professor, former Chair of English, and prize-winning journalist, whose scholarly and teaching specialties in early literature and the history of novel provide expert background for exploring the Great Books with those at all levels from introductory to advanced. A recipient of the Bucknell President’s Award for Teaching Excellence, he is a past Fellow in Religion and Public Life of the James Madison Center for American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, and has studied and researched literature at graduate and postgraduate levels at universities in Britain and Ireland. As a member of the President’s Sustainability Council at Bucknell he has helped coordinate ongoing student media projects related to the Bucknell Greenway. He is also Director of the Bucknell Program for American Leadership, and is an ordained Priest in the Orthodox Church wh is convener of the Bucknell Faculty Staff Christian Association and adviser to the Bucknell Orthodox Christian community.
See brochure below for details.