Saturday
Classical education is broader and more diverse than you may think—it bridges all divides. And with divisive, dogmatic, and insular voices surrounding today’s culture, finding a way across to one another is crucial. In this one-day mini-symposium, we will hear from three leading scholars—Dr. Angel Adams Parham and Dr. Anika Prather, co-authors of The Black Intellectual Tradition, with Roosevelt Montas, author of Rescuing Socrates—on how to find our story in the stories of the past and discover powerful tools for tackling our modern-day problems. If you long to grow, do better, make sense of our world, and learn how to move forward with our future generation, join us for a day of learning, reflecting, and discussing On Being Human together.
schedule
8:00a
Doors open + coffee/tea/pastries
8:30a
Introduction + Keynote by Roosevelt Montás
9:15a
Session 1
10:45a
Session 2
12:15p
Lunch break
1:15p
Session 3
2:45p
Happy hour refreshments + closing reflections
speakers
Dr. Anika Prather
Founder of the Living Water School + Assistant Professor at
Catholic University + Author
Dr. Anika Prather earned her B.A. from Howard University in elementary education, along with several graduate degrees in education from New York University and Howard University. She has a Masters in liberal arts from St. John’s College (Annapolis) and a PhD in English, Theatre and Literacy Education from the University of Maryland (College Park). Her research focus is on building literacy with African American students through engagement in the books of the Canon. She has served as a teacher, supervisor for student teachers, director of education and Head of School. Currently, she teaches in the Classics dept at Howard University and is the founder of The Living Water School, located in Southern Maryland. She and her husband Damon, have three young children, and as a family they have an urban farm where they raise angora rabbits. They reside in the DC metropolitan area.
Dr. Angel Parham
Professor at University of Virginia
+ Author + Music Lover
Angel Adams Parham is the Rev. Joseph H. Fichter, S.J. Distinguished Professor of Social Science and Associate Professor of Sociology at Loyola University-New Orleans. Much of her work is in the area of comparative and historical sociology of race, assessing the many ways that the past continues to speak to the present and urging us to contemplate who we have been and who we aspire to be as a national community. This area of research has inspired her interest in re-connecting sociology to its classical roots so that sociology is understood to be a kind of public philosophy animated by questions such as: What is a good society? and What kinds of social arrangements are most conducive to human flourishing? She is the author of American Routes: Racial Palimpsests and the Transformation of Race (Oxford, 2017), which was co-winner of the Allan Sharlin Memorial best book award (2018) and co-winner of the Barrington Moore best book award (2018) in comparative-historical sociology. She has been a member of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, as well as the recipient of a Fulbright grant. She is also the co-founder and executive director of Nyansa Classical Community, an organization which provides classical curricula and programming designed to connect with students from diverse backgrounds, inviting them to take part in the Great Conversation, cultivate the moral imagination, and encourage the pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty.
Dr. Roosevelt Montás
Professor at Columbia University
+ Author
Roosevelt Montás is Senior Lecturer in American Studies and English at Columbia University. He holds an A.B. (1995), an M.A. (1996), and a Ph.D. (2004) in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University. He was Director of the Center for the Core Curriculum at Columbia College from 2008 to 2018. Roosevelt specializes in Antebellum American literature and culture, with a particular interest in American citizenship. His dissertation, Rethinking America: Abolitionism and the Antebellum Transformation of the Discourse of National Identity, won Columbia University’s 2004 Bancroft Award. In 2000, he received the Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Graduate Student. Roosevelt teaches “Introduction to Contemporary Civilization in the West,” a year-long course on primary texts in moral and political thought, as well as seminars in American Studies including “Freedom and Citizenship in the United States.” He is Director of the Center for American Studies’ Freedom and Citizenship Program in collaboration with the Double Discovery Center. He speaks and writes on the history, meaning, and future of liberal education and is author of Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation (Princeton University Press, 2021).
sessions
The Revolution of
theGreat Conversation
Dr. Anika Prather
It is instinctive for human beings to talk. The Classical Tradition invites us to engage in the Great Conversation that has transcended time, cultures, and ethnicity. Somehow our society has gotten away from this, but to bring it back can spark a revolution that can bring us together. In this session we will explore how education and the western canon has liberated human beings throughout history and we will explore how to have civil, respectful conversations even in the midst of our differences. You will leave with an awareness of the amazing things that happen from engaging in conversations with the people around us and throughout history.
Freedom and Flourishing:
Re-Envisioning theAmerican Story
Dr. Angel Parham
The Declaration of Independence declares that “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” are unalienable rights. We have an intuitive understanding of “Life”, but what is the essence of “Liberty”? What is “Happiness”? The answers are more complex than you might initially think. Writers in the classical liberal arts tradition from antiquity through the modern era have been engaged in a robust debate about the nature of freedom and flourishing (the contemporary term for “happiness”). In this session we’ll enter into this conversation, weaving classic and canonical texts together with exemplary actors in the American story—some we know well, and others who will be new to many. You will leave with a deepened understanding of key principles in the Declaration, as well as a knowledge of vibrant, lesser-known actors in the American story who help us to see freedom and flourishing in new ways.
On Being Human;
On Being Free
Dr. Roosevelt Montás
What is education for? In this session we will explore the nature and aims of a liberal education and what it means to educate a being who is free. We will also explore the connection between true freedom and real learning alongside the great thinkers of the past. We will identify liberal education as a radical practice that works at the root of one’s being. You will leave with a deep understanding of how real learning cannot be shackled with any idealogical conformity and be equipped to pursue being a human who is truly free.