Oxford College and ECAS Awarded $275K Teagle Implementation Grant
Oxford College and Emory College of Arts & Sciences (ECAS) of Emory University have been awarded a $275,000 grant from the Teagle Foundation as part of its prestigious Cornerstone: Learning for Living initiative.
The grant, distributed over a 36-month period, will support Oxford’s efforts to reinvigorate the humanities through the launch of its new Professional Advancement Through Humanities Study (PATHS) certificate program.
“With the generous support of the Teagle Foundation’s Cornerstone Program, Oxford plans to invigorate the teaching and study of the humanities to show students how art, music, literature, philosophy, history, languages, and other disciplines not only broaden and elevate their college experience, but also enhance their career path, whatever that might be,”
The Teagle-funded initiative will increase collaboration across courses and campuses by creating new programming to highlight undergraduate learning and help prepare first- and second-year students for their final two years in college. This program will offer certificates in four areas: Social Responsibility and Ethics, Global Engagement, Creativity and Innovation, and Communication and Critical Thinking.
Starting next fall, Oxford will offer four pilot PATHS Discovery Seminars (DSCs)—signature classes taken by all Oxford students in their first semester—which will give students a unique cohort experience. “In addition to the typical DSC structure, PATHS DSC students will read transformative texts that they share with all other students in the program and join other PATHS students for special activities such as plays, musical productions, and guest lectures related to those texts,” says Tarver. “Along the way, the PATHS course will help our students develop skills that future employers deeply value: ethical leadership, collaborative teamwork, critical thinking, effective communication, and creativity.”
McGehee and Tarver are also collaborating with ECAS colleagues Benjamin Reiss, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of English, and Joseph Crespino, Senior Associate Dean of Faculty and Divisional Dean of Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences & Jimmy Carter Professor of History, who serve as co-PIs on the implementation grant. ECAS will focus on revising its first-year seminars to focus on transformative texts and creating a shared syllabus. Oxford and ECAS will bring faculty and students together throughout the implementation period and will highlight cultural treasures on Emory’s campus and around Atlanta – such as the Rose Library’s literary archives, the Carlos Museum’s antiquities and African and Native American arts collection, the forthcoming Twin Memorials acknowledging the contributions of enslaved laborers to Emory’s founding, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, and more. “All of these efforts will lead to much more intentional collaboration across the two campuses in support of students in their first two years of undergraduate studies,” says McGehee.
The Teagle-funded project will involve a large number of faculty across the Oxford campus, where a primary focus is undergraduate learning and providing opportunities to work one-on-one with faculty in disciplinary research projects at an early stage in their education. Every student in the PATHS pilot will read three transformative texts chosen by the pilot faculty: Euripides's Medea, 1001 Nights, and Freud’s “The Uncanny.” Nick Fesette, associate professor of theater studies, will teach one of the pilot PATHS Discovery Seminars (DSC). “As part of our Adaptation and Storytelling DSC, students will study and present a feminist adaptation of One Thousand and One Nights by an Arab playwright that focuses on storytelling as an act of survival.” Both Oxford and ECAS will invite diverse groups of alumni to share how studying the humanities shaped their lives and careers.
"The PATHS program, funded by the Teagle Foundation, fits perfectly into Oxford’s goal to provide an inspired and integrated academic experience that impacts students’ hearts and minds and demonstrates the value of humanistic thinking and inquiry to both their personal and professional lives."