Calvin Seminars in Christian Scholarship - Postmodernism and the Humanities

Seminar Description:
Of the several currents that have swept through the American academy this century, few have been more pervasive or more perplexing than postmodernism. Indeed, part of what makes postmodernism so perplexing is its very pervasiveness. Included under its label are such apparently disconnected phenomena as architectural design by assemblage, the rise of identity politics, self-referential gestures in cinema,, multicultural programs, the new discipline of cultural studies, mixed-genre fiction, deconstructive readings of literary texts, the genealogical critique of social institutions, and the culture of Las Vegas--to name but a few.

Whatever the underlying set of assumptions and attitudes that unify it as a cultural movement may turn out to be, postmodernism has had an undeniably profound effect upon the practice of scholarship in the humanities, the character of liberal arts education, the political culture of the academy, and our understanding of the very ideal to which the academy has traditionally devoted itself, the ideal of knowledge.

Designed for faculty members of the Lilly Fellows Program Network institutions, this seminar will be devoted to providing time for a deeper understanding of postmodernism and a measured assessment of its implications for the conduct of teaching and scholarship at the religiously-identified liberal arts college or university. In the allotted four weeks we propose to explore the origins and outworkings of postmodernism in three disciplines--philosophy, history, and literature--and to consider the possible effects of its demand for diversity upon the identity of church-related institutions of higher learning.

The Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts

The Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts is a network of church-related colleges and universities that provides a national forum for exploring issues of common concern. Currently there are over sixty institutions of higher learning in the network, representing diverse denominational traditions, institutional types, and geographic locations.

Funded by the Lilly Endowment and centered at Valparaiso University, the Lilly Fellows Program is a national initiative intended to address two critical challenges faced by church-related institutions in the United States. First, the program endeavors to provide a national conversation expressly designed to renew and deepen a sense of corporate vocation among the various network member schools. Second, the program provides a setting for the formation of young Christian scholars in the arts and humanities who wish to pursue their callings at church related colleges and universities while enriching both their intellectual and spiritual lives. The overall objective of the Lilly Fellows Program is the imaginative reformulation and implementation of an agenda for church-related higher education for the twenty-first century.

Lilly Summer Seminar 1999 Sponsored by The Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts
Postmodernism and the Humanities June 28-July 23, 1999
Lee Hardy, Professor of Philosophy, Calvin College	Susan Felch, Associate Professor of English, Calvin College
Seminar Description: Of the several currents that have swept through the American academy this century, few have been more pervasive or more perplexing than postmodernism. Indeed, part of what makes postmodernism so perplexing is its very pervasiveness. Included under its label are such apparently disconnected phenomena as architectural design by assemblage, the rise of identity politics, self-referential gestures in cinema,, multicultural programs, the new discipline of cultural studies, mixed-genre fiction, deconstructive readings of literary texts, the genealogical critique of social institutions, and the culture of Las Vegas--to name but a few. Whatever the underlying set of assumptions and attitudes that unify it as a cultural movement may turn out to be, postmodernism has had an undeniably profound effect upon the practice of scholarship in the humanities, the character of liberal arts education, the political culture of the academy, and our understanding of the very ideal to which the academy has traditionally devoted itself, the ideal of knowledge. Designed for faculty members of the Lilly Fellows Program Network institutions, this seminar will be devoted to providing time for a deeper understanding of postmodernism and a measured assessment of its implications for the conduct of teaching and scholarship at the religiously-identified liberal arts college or university. In the allotted four weeks we propose to explore the origins and outworkings of postmodernism in three disciplines--philosophy, history, and literature--and to consider the possible effects of its demand for diversity upon the identity of church-related institutions of higher learning. The Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts The Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts is a network of church-related colleges and universities that provides a national forum for exploring issues of common concern. Currently there are over sixty institutions of higher learning in the network, representing diverse denominational traditions, institutional types, and geographic locations. Funded by the Lilly Endowment and centered at Valparaiso University, the Lilly Fellows Program is a national initiative intended to address two critical challenges faced by church-related institutions in the United States. First, the program endeavors to provide a national conversation expressly designed to renew and deepen a sense of corporate vocation among the various network member schools. Second, the program provides a setting for the formation of young Christian scholars in the arts and humanities who wish to pursue their callings at church related colleges and universities while enriching both their intellectual and spiritual lives. The overall objective of the Lilly Fellows Program is the imaginative reformulation and implementation of an agenda for church-related higher education for the twenty-first century.