Interdisciplinary liberal arts education in Canada
A symposium dedicated to discussing past experiences, present realities, and future challenges
June 27–June 29, 2012
Centre for Interdisciplinary Research
Participating Institutions
Canada:
Carleton University
Concordia University
Dalhousie University
Halifax Humanities 101
Huron University College
Quest University
Saint Francis Xavier University
Saint Mary’s University
St. Thomas University
University of British Columbia
University of Lethbridge
University of New Brunswick
University of Saint Michael’s College
Vancouver Island University
U.S.:
Augustana College
Columbia College Chicago
Iona College
Penn State Greater Allegheny
Seton Hall University
University of Scranton
International:
American University of
Iraq-Sulaimani
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Symposium Particpants
William Acres, BA, PhD (Cambridge)
Comparative Religions & Church History
Faculty of Theology, Huron University College, London, Ontario, Canada
William Barker, BA (Dartmouth), MA, BEd, PhD (Toronto)
Professor of English, Dalhousie University, and Former President (2003-2011),
University of King’s College, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Daniel Brandes, BA, MA, PhD (Northwestern)
Director, Foundation Year Programme, Assistant Professor of Humanities, Early Modern Studies Programme, University of King’s College, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Jarrett Carty, BA, MA, PhD (Notre Dame),
Assistant Professor, Liberal Arts College, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Dr. James Cohn
Chief Academic Officer, Quest University Canada, Squamish, British Columbia
Jim Cohn is a founding faculty member and the Chief Academic Officer of Quest University. He taught for 15 years at St. John's College (Santa Fe). He completed his PhD at the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago, and his BA at Dartmouth College. He held a Fulbright scholarship in Cologne.
Manuela Costantino, BA, MA, PhD (UBC)
Associate Director, Coordinated Arts Program, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Mario D'Souza, CSB, BA (Hons), MEd, MDiv, CAES, PhD (Toronto)
Dean of the Faculty of Theology, University of Saint Michael's College, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Susan Dodd, BA (Vind), MA, PhD (York) Assistant Professor of Humanities in the Foundation Year Programme, University of King’s College, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Book: The Ocean Ranger: Remaking the Promise of Oil (Halifax: Fernwood, 2012) Current project: “Unity of Opposites: Hegel and Canadian Political Thought” (co-edited with Neil Robertson)
Ricardo Duchesne, BA, MA, PhD (York University),
Dept. of Social Science, University of New Brunswick Saint John, Canada
Ricardo Duchesne, PhD completed at York University, Social & Political Thought Program. He is Professor at the University of New Brunswick, Saint John. He is the author of The Uniqueness of Western Civilization (2011).
Elizabeth Edwards, BA, MA, PhD (Cambridge),
Contemporary Studies Programme, University of King’s College, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Nancy Enright, BA, MA, PhD (Drew University),
English Dept., College of Arts and Sciences, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey, USA
Nancy Enright is an Associate Professor of English and Director of First Year Writing at Seton Hall University, where she also serves on the Core Advisory Board and the Catholic Studies Advisory Board. She has been actively involved in planning and teaching courses in Seton Hall’s core curriculum, which includes classic core texts, which are explored in connection with questions about the meaning of life, death, service, and community. She has published articles on Dante, Augustine, C.S. Lewis, J.R. R. Tolkien, Julian of Norwich, and William Hazlitt. She lives in Montclair, NJ, USA with her husband and daughter.
Dr. David Fishelov, Faculty of Humanities, Dept. of General and Comparative Literature,
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
David Fishelov is an Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He authored two books in English: Metaphors of Genre: The Role of Analogies in Genre Theory (1993) and Dialogues with/and Great Books: The Dynamics of Canon Formation (2010) and two in Hebrew: Studies in Poetic Simile (1996) and Samson's Locks: The Transformations of Biblical Samson (2000) and published numerous articles.
Gregory Gillette BA, MSE, MEd, PhD (Catholic University of America School of Engineering)
Dept. of Mathematics, Penn State Greater Allegheny, McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA
Marian Glenn, BA, PhD (Tufts University)
Biology Dept. and Environmental Studies, College of Arts and Sciences, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey, USA
Neil Guppy, BA, BPHE, MSc, PhD (University of Waterloo)
Director, Coordinated Arts Program, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Natasha Hay, Undergraduate Student, University of King’s College, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Natasha Hay recently graduated with a BA in Contemporary Studies and German. She developed an independent reading course on The Concept of Bildung and the German University with Magdalena Jennings and Professor Gordon McOuat. In the fall, Natasha will begin graduate work in Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto.
David Heckerl, BA, MA, PhD (McGill)
Dept. of English, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
David Heckerl is an Associate Professor of English at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His current research explores the peculiar manner in which the concerns of culture and politics are given voice in the ‘transcendentalism’ of Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman, and of how these concerns are continued and refreshed in the philosopher Stanley Cavell’s musings on ‘moral perfectionism.’
Dr. David Helfand, President, Quest University Canada, Squamish, British Columbia
Following 35 years on the faculty of Columbia University in New York (this institution’s offspring) where he added science to its famed Core Curriculum, Dr. Helfand served as a Founding Tutor and, since 2008, as President of Quest University Canada. As of this month, he is also President of the American Astronomical Society.
Paul Hardman, University Writing Centre, Dalhousie University, Halifax NS Canada
Magdalena Jennings, Undergraduate Student, University of King’s College, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Magdalena Jennings will soon graduate with a BA in Contemporary Studies and German. She collaborated with Natasha Hay on an essay about great books programmes and the German tradition. Magdalena's undergraduate thesis, Education Out of Love for the World, investigates how Hannah Arendt’s concept of authority must be adjusted in a university context.
Dr. Robert Kennedy, Dept. of Religious Studies,
Saint Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada
R. Alexander Kizuk, BA, MA, PhD
Liberal Education Programme, University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
Dr. Brandon Konoval, D.M.A. (Br.Col.)
Arts One Program, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Emil A. Kramer, BA, MA, PhD (Cincinnati)
Dept. Classics, Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois, USA
Emil Kramer received his Ph.D. in Classics from the University of Cincinnati in 1998 and is currently chair of the Department of Classics at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. Most recently he has devoted his research to the structural and thematic correlations between Plato’s Republic and Symposium.
Dr. Anne Leavitt, President, University of King’s College, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Dr. David Livingstone, University-College Professor, Liberal Studies, and Political Studies, Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada
Gordon McOuat, BA, MA, PhD (Toronto)
Professor of Humanities, History of Science and Technology and Contemporary Studies Programmes, University of King’s College, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Waller R. Newell, BA, MA, MPhil, PhD (Yale)
Professor of Political Science and Philosophy and co-director of the Centre for Liberal Education and Public Affairs, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Maureen Okun, BA, MA
Dept. of Liberal Studies, Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada
Kim Paffenroth, BA, MTS, PhD Theology (University of Notre Dame)
Religious Studies, Iona College, New Rochelle, New York, USA
Pangratios Papacosta, BA, MS, PhD (University of London)
Science and Mathematics Dept., Columbia College, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Pangratios Papacosta is Professor of Physics at Columbia College Chicago and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics of Great Britain. He has degrees in physics and history of science from the University of London and for 30 years he has been an advocate for Liberal Education and interdisciplinary studies.
Laura J. Penny BA (Vind), MA (UWO), PhD (SUNY Buffalo)
Faculty Member, Foundation Year Programme, Contemporary Studies Programme, University of King’s College, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Laura Penny teaches in the Foundation Year and Contemporary Studies Programmes at the University of King’s College, doing unto others as was done to her. She is the author of Your Call is Important to Us: The Truth about Bullshit (2005) and More Money than Brains: Why Schools Suck, College is Crap and Idiots Think They’re Right (2010).
Dr. Eric Plumer, Religious Studies, University of Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA
Mary Lu Roffey-Redden, Director, Halifax Humanities 101, Nova Scotia, Canada
Mary Lu Roffey Redden is the director of Halifax Humanities 101, a unique educational outreach offering free, university level, non-credit education in the Humanities to adults living on low incomes. Mary Lu is a graduate of Huron College UWO (Hons. BA in Philosophy) and McMaster University (MA in Philosophy of Religion).
Neil Robertson, BA, MA, PhD (Cambridge)
Associate Professor in the Foundation Year, Early Modern Studies and Contemporary Studies Programmes, University of King’s College, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Marie-Louise (Milo) Stening-Riding MA, PhD (Dalhousie)
Marie-Louise (Milo) Stening-Riding has an M.A. and Ph.D. in English from Dalhousie University. She also has a degree in Journalism, majoring in Mass-communications, from the School of Journalism at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. She has worked as a current affairs reporter and producer for both the Finnish and Canadian Broadcasting Corporations; as a reporter and night editor with newspapers in Finland and Sweden, and as a researcher in Germany. A scholarship from the Swedish Association of Journalists took her to Washington D. C., where she briefly worked as a researcher and writer for Ralph Nader's "Congress Watch."
Ian Stewart, BSc, MA, PhD (Cambridge)
Chair, Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, University of King’s College, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Ryan Topping, MA, M.PHIL. D.PHIL (Oxford)
Studies in Catholic Theology, St. Thomas Aquinas (Great Books) Program,
St. Thomas University, Fredericton New Brunswick, Canada
Ryan N.S. Topping earned a doctorate in moral theology from the University of Oxford. He previously held the Pope John XXIII Chair of Studies in Catholic Theology at St. Thomas University in Canada, and is author of St. Augustine (Continuum, 2010), Happiness and Wisdom: Augustine’s Early Theology of Education (Catholic University of America Press, 2012), and a forthcoming study, Lazarus Rising: The Catechism and the Renewal of Catholic Culture. As of August 2012 Dr. Topping will be moving to Thomas More College of the Liberal Arts, New Hampshire.
Darcy Wudel, BA, MA, PhD (Toronto)
Dean, Politics and Government, American University of Iraq-Sulaimani, Iraq
Darcy Wudel received his BA and MA from the University of Alberta. His PhD – in Political Science – is from the University of Toronto. He has taught at Hampden-Sydney College, Averett University, and Deep Springs College. He is currently the Associate Professor and Dean of Faculty at The American University of Iraq Sulaimani.
