Friends of the Heyman Center


The Friends of the Heyman Center, under the direction of James V. Mirollo, Parr Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature, is made up of people who help ensure the advancement and vitality of the Heyman Center for the Humanities. For more than twenty years, the Friends have contributed to the support of the myriad activities of the Center, including its superlative lecture series, which continues to be free and open to the public.

Friends of the Heyman Center Carl Hovde Colloquia Series

In Memory of Carl Hovde, Chair, 1999-2009

About

The Friends of the Heyman Center offers discussion courses led by Columbia's most renowned teachers and scholars to alumni and friends of the University who wish to continue organized education without the need for academic credit. These colloquia are planned as active discussions rather than lectures, and the faculty leaders are among the best teachers in the University. No papers or examinations are required. We charge only a small fraction of normal tuition, and after expenses these funds help both to improve our programs and maintain the building -- one of the most congenial on campus.

We offer two courses each term, typically one dealing with East/West topics, and another about some aspect of Western thought. Classes meet from 5:30-7:30 every other week for six sessions. This fall and spring the charge is $500 for one course and $800 for both -- and at this higher level, spouses are welcome without further charge. You would pay far more for courses carrying academic credit, and at the Heyman Center, you will be studying with Columbia's finest teachers.

The colloquia this fall and spring will be led by four outstanding teachers, most popular with those who often attend our courses. Books for both courses can be purchased at Book Culture (formerly Labyrinth Books), located on 112th St. between Broadway and Amsterdam Ave, and can be reached by phone at 212-865-1588. These courses are not listed in the regular University Bulletin; if there is confusion, ask for the text-book department.

Fall 2010 Colloquia

"In Praise (and Dispraise) of Love": Part Two

This colloquium will be led by James V. Mirollo, Harry Parr Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature, Chair of the Friends of the Heyman Center, and Director of the Carl Hovde Colloquia. This course will continue last year's perusal of literary representations of the thematics of love, beginning with Stendhal ("love is a happy illness") and ending with Barbery's 2006 best-seller. Like Part One this continuation will include both prose fiction and poetry, the latter to be introduced via handouts at each session. As earlier, the focus will be on love directed to other creatures, though we will not neglect the Creator and Nature as objects of devotion. Also, as earlier, the texts will include both Western and Eastern works.

"In Praise (and Dispraise) of Love": Part Two syllabus and dates (pdf)

"The Search for Self-Knowledge and Wisdom"

Professor Peter Pazzaglini, Senior Scholar at the Heyman Center, has made both self-knowledge and the pursuit of wisdom the signature themes of his core courses. Knowledge without self-knowledge, the absence of self-knowledge, or self-deception makes us dangerous to ourselves and the world around us. To avoid this harm, we ought to acquire new knowledge and self-knowledge with courage and authentic personal agency, always within a framework of ethics, morals and/or virtues that permit us to develop a more just social contract between the individual and the community. By integrating the diverse perspectives of these texts from philosophy, psychology, political science, literature, and science, we acquire a deeper and broader understanding of the definition and search for self-knowledge and wisdom, both individual and communal.

"The Search for Self-Knowledge and Wisdom" syllabus and dates (pdf)

Spring 2011 Colloquia

"Dostoevsky and Western Fiction"

Robert L. Belknap is Professor Emeritus of Russian at Columbia and Director of the University Seminars. He was educated at Princeton University, the University of Paris, Columbia University , and Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) State University. He is the author of The Structure of The Brothers Karamazov, The Genius of The Brothers Karamazov, and other studies of Russian literature and literary theory. He has taught the Humanities courses in major texts of the Western tradition for fifty years, and recently a sequel to it that involves major Asian classics. He has chaired the Humanities course and the Slavic Department, been Director of the Russian (now Harriman) Institute, and served as Dean of Students and Dean of the College.This Colloquium will treat Dostoevsky as an active participant in the history of European prose fiction. It will read a small sampling of his favorite Western European authors and then spend three sessions on his first world-famous novel, dealing with the ways he adapted his reading to his writing, but also with the novel as a whole.

"Dostoevsky and Western Fiction" syllabus and dates (pdf)

"The Novel of Adventure"

This Colloquium will be led by John Richetti, A.M. Rosenthal Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania. The main tradition of the English novel as it emerges in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries seems to be concerned mainly with domestic life and often enough with courtship leading to marriage. In those years Britain was fast becoming the dominant imperial and commercial European power, but its crucial military, colonial, and commercial experience is only obliquely represented in this fiction. Beginning with Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719) and ending with Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim (1900), where those realities are vividly portrayed, we will read a selection of novels from these centuries and seek to understand why the domestic realistic novel and the marriage plot take precedence over the historical actualities of British expansionism.

"The Novel of Adventure" syllabus and dates (pdf)

Register

Additional support beyond our fees is very much appreciated and brings notices of the Lunchtime Lecture Series at the Heyman Center. All support beyond the course charge is fully tax-deductible. A gift of $25 or more also brings a subscription to the Columbia University Record.

Acceptance is on a first come, first served basis, and you will be notified of your registration status upon the Heyman Center's receipt of your registration form with payment. To register for one or both of this semester's colloquia, click the following link:

Registration Form (pdf)

Please contact Jonah Cardillo at 212-854-0002 or jgc92@columbia.edu with any questions.

For directions to the Heyman Center, please Click Here. Classes are held in the Common Room, one floor up from the entrance level.