HARTFORD, Conn., Feb. 4 ñ A well-known philanthropist, a Nobel laureate and leading culture critics will be among the many scholars and other experts who will participate in a major symposium on the future of the liberal arts college to be hosted by Trinity College.
The two-day event, February 22-23, is the centerpiece in a yearlong commemoration of Trinity's 175th anniversary and is designed both to celebrate the liberal arts college and to explore the challenges and opportunities it faces in the next century.
The symposium, The Liberal Arts College in the 21st Century: Challenges and Responsibilities, will feature such notables as Murray Gell-Mann, a Nobel laureate in physics; Robert Brustein, a noted theater and culture critic and director of the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University; and Eugene M. Lang, founder of the I Have A Dream Foundation.
The symposium also will feature presentations by internationally acclaimed artist Lesley Dill; incisive culture critics Paula Fass of the University of California, Berkeley, Paul Goldberger of The New Yorker magazine, Louis Menand of City University of New York Graduate Center; Eli Noam, director, Columbia Institute for Tele-Information, Columbia Business School; Orlando Patterson of Harvard University; and esteemed historians of the American college, Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz of Smith College and Francis Oakley of Williams College.
"For much of its history, the American liberal arts college has virtually defined the terms for excellence in undergraduate education,î says Evan S. Dobelle, president of Trinity College. ìStill the most vital and vibrant educational institution, the liberal arts college now confronts significant historical and cultural developments -- information technology and distance learning, demographic shifts, increasing calls for more vocationally oriented education, and intense public debates about the nature of the college curriculum -- that challenge the very character of liberal learning."
The symposium will feature panel discussions on a wide range of topics, such as The Liberal Arts College: Anachronism or Paradigm?; The Arts, the Liberal Arts, and the Academy; The Liberal Arts and the Liberal Sciences; The Liberal Arts College in the Civic Sphere; The Challenges of Demography and Democracy; and General Education: The Challenge and the Promise of the Liberal Arts College in the Age of the University.
"Given Trinity's single-minded commitment to the liberal arts throughout its 175-year history, it's appropriate that the College organize this symposium on the future of the liberal arts college,î says Ronald Spencer, Trinity associate academic dean and a principal organizer of the symposium. ìWhat makes the program especially exciting is the diverse array of viewpoints represented among the speakers, many of whom are prominent public intellectuals, as well as distinguished academics.î
The registration fee is $75 for one day; $100 for both days. Information may be obtained by contacting Mark Warren McLaughlin at (860) 297-2139 or [email protected], or at the symposium's website at www.trincoll.edu/~libarts.html.
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Contact: Dean Golembeski, Trinity Public Relations, (860) 297-2143, [email protected]
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