Freedom and Citizenship: Explorations in Ancient, Modern, and Contemporary Thought
The seminar was led by Dr. Roosevelt Montás, Associate Dean, Columbia College, Director of the Center for the Core Curriculum.
The students also received guest lectures from distinguished Columbia faculty such as:
During the seminar, students read excerpts from the following works:
For class each day, students wrote a critical reaction to the previous night's reading.
View Keo's response paper on Frederick Douglass
To conclude the seminar, students were asked to write an analytic paper in which they address with the philosophical concept of citizenship.
View Whitney's final paper
The students also received guest lectures from distinguished Columbia faculty such as:
- Dr. Casey Blake, Professor of History, and Chair, Committee on Civic Engagement
- Dr. Andrew Delbanco, Mendelson Family Professor of American Studies and Julian Clarence Levi Professor in the Humanities.
- Dr. Kathy Eden, Chavkin Family Professor of English Literature and Professor of Classics
- Dr. Eric Foner, Dewitt Clinton Professor of History
During the seminar, students read excerpts from the following works:
- The Trial and Death of Socrates, Plato
- Politics, Aristotle
- History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides
- Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes
- Second Treatise of Government, John Locke
- "On the Social Contract," Jean-Jaques Rousseau
- Speeches and writings of Abraham Lincoln
- The Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson
- Notes on the State of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson
- Democracy in America, Alexis de Toqueville
- Narrative of the Life of an American Slave, Frederick Douglas
- The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Dubois
- The Declaration of Sentiments, Seneca Falls Conference
- "Four Freedoms Speech," Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- "Capitalism and Freedom," Milton Friedman
- "The Meaning and Office of Liberalism," John Dewey
- "Port Huron Statement," Students for a Democratic Society
- "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," Martin Luther King, Jr.
- First Inaugural Address, Barack Obama
- "Not For Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities," Martha Nussbaum
For class each day, students wrote a critical reaction to the previous night's reading.
View Keo's response paper on Frederick Douglass
To conclude the seminar, students were asked to write an analytic paper in which they address with the philosophical concept of citizenship.
View Whitney's final paper