COMMUNITY SEMINAR
Community Seminar
Join members of our community in asking the Great Questions of humankind through discussions of transformative texts. Participants complete a reading assignment and consider how it helps them ask the Great Questions before attending the event and participating in a conversation with others who have done the same. Students, Faculty and Staff are all welcome to attend. Food and refreshments provided.
Many thanks to The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Humanities Center and The Great Questions Foundation for their support of this series.
Alexis de Tocqueville
Tyranny of The Majority
and
What Kind of Despotism We Have to Fear
(selections for Democracy in America)
November 21, 2024 from 7-9:30pm
Click here for reading selections and discussion questions.
Guiding Questions:
1. What is the best form of government? What is the proper relationship between the individual and the state?
2. What is Justice? What are my obligations to others and what are their obligations towards me?
Reading and Discussion Questions Here
RSVP required to attend. Location at HLC will be sent to those who RSVP here.
Fall 2024
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
Wednesday, October 23 from 4-7:30 pm
This special Community Seminar will serve as the keynote event for the Teagle Foundation’s 2024 convening of the Cornerstone: Learning for Living initiative. The event will begin with a discussion between Joshua Bennett, Distinguished Chair of the Humanities and Professor of Literature, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Roosevelt Montás, Senior Lecturer in American Studies and English, Columbia University. Then, participants will join Community Seminar discussion groups over dinner with faculty guests, who are directors of Cornerstone initiatives at colleges and universities across the country.
4:00-4:30 pm Registration and Refreshments
4:30-4:45 pm Welcome by Monique Umphrey, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor of Academic and Student Affairs, Austin Community College
4:45-5:00 pm Greetings from Andrew Delbanco, President, The Teagle Foundation
5:00-6:00 pm On Teaching Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave: Joshua Bennett in Conversation with Roosevelt Montás
Joshua Bennett, Distinguished Chair of the Humanities and Professor of Literature, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Roosevelt Montás, Senior Lecturer in American Studies and English, Columbia University
6:00-7:30 pm Welcome Dinner and Community Seminar discussion
Attendees will have an opportunity to reflect on and discuss Douglass’s Narrative in small groups with visiting faculty leaders in the Cornerstone initiative
All are welcome, but RSVP is required to attend. The exact location of the event will be emailed to those who RSVP. RSVP HERE
Click here for reading selections and discussion questions.
Dostoevsky’s The Grand Inquisitor
Thursday, July 11 from 7-9:30pm
Click here for reading selections and discussion questions
Who am I?
Is There a Supreme Being or Beings?
ACC Highland Campus
James Baldwin, Down at The Cross
Wednesday, February 7 from 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Click here for reading selections and discussion questions.
and
Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (selections)
Friday, March 8 from 12pm-2pm
Click here for reading selections and discussion questions.
and
- Who am I?
- Is There a Supreme Being or Beings?
ACC Highland Campus
Thursday, September 14 from 7:30pm – 9:30pm
The Hebrew Bible (Genesis 1-4) and
The Quran (selected Surahs)
Click here for reading selections and discussion questions.
Wednesday, October 25 from 7:30pm – 9:30pm
The Popol Vuh (selections) and
The Rig Veda (selections)
Click here for reading selections and discussion questions.
- Who am I?
- Is There a Supreme Being or Beings?
ACC Highland Campus
Antigone by Sophocles
February 16 from 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Text
Letter from A Birmingham Jail by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
April 13 from 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Text
- What is Justice?
- Is There a Supreme Being or Beings?
ACC Highland Campus
Plato’s Apology of Socrates
October 20 and November 17 from 7:30pm – 9:30pm
- What is the Good Life and how do I live it?
- What is Justice? What are my obligations towards others and what are their obligations towards me?
ACC Highland Campus