On February 21, Messiah College warmly welcomed Geoffrey Galt Harpham as the keynote speaker for the College’s annual Humanities Symposium. Harpham currently acts as the president and director of the National Humanities Center in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina – the only institute in the world dedicated completely to the humanities. After being trained as a literary scholar, Harpham released several books, one of which guided his lecture at the Symposium. Among the many issues addressed in his book, “The Humanities and the Dream of America,” Harpham mainly focuses on how the humanities were formed and what role the American academy played in its formation.

Harpham began his lecture, “Melancholy in the Midst of Abundance,” by taking his audience back to a post-World War II America. Before this time, people viewed the humanities simply as a waste of time since, as they believed, nothing beneficial could result from such studies. However, following the war, American citizens began to experience a change of heart regarding the humanities. Instead of being viewed as a waste of time, they felt as if the humanities could represent the crowning achievement of a nation which just prevailed in war. This nation would build itself on such a foundation of economic, political, and social power, that citizens could turn their attention towards the humanities. People of this day started viewing a pursuit of the humanities directly related to the progression of the nation and of mankind. This new appreciation of the art guided the American academy and led to works such as the Harvard “Redbook”.

According to Harpham, the Harvard Redbook was an influential work that supported the spread of the humanities. In fact, this book was known to be a symbol of renewal as it revolved around the idea of cultivating the humanities and society as a whole. Harpham also spoke about the stances made in the Redbook on the goals of education. According to the book, education should produce unity and character in American society, but the most important aim is for education to cultivate a proper vision of humanity; one in which citizens are unified by wisdom – creating what Harpham coined as “the whole man.” But, just what is the “whole man?” As Harpham described, whole men are those who appreciate the arts and humanities, and those who are reflective and curious about such topics. In addition, these men possess freedom as well as a strong sense of citizenship. This, in essence, is the purpose of education: to produce whole men and women. And, by achieving this goal, it was believed that one could experience a freer and more abundant life.

In today’s society, it is important to remember how the study of the humanities was formed and shaped by our nation’s past. In addition, as Harpham stressed, it is equally important to realize where the humanities is headed and to aid in its advancement. According to Jimmy Carter, the former president whom Harpham quoted multiple times throughout his lecture, “We must stress how limited our sense of national purpose is, indeed how imperiled our civilization is, if the humanities are exiled to a peripheral role of irrelevance.”

Story by Jessica Kern `15.

For most people, Hershey, Pa. means delicious chocolate, thrilling amusement park rides and the philanthropist Milton Hershey. However, for Megan Keller ’13, the real story lies deeper than the tourist attractions and candy bars. The story of Hershey, engrained in its rich history, provides a deeper look at the industrious workers that brought this town its fame. Keller found a way to intertwine this story and her Messiah College education to develop and produce a mobile application that narrates a historical walking tour through downtown Hershey.

As a history major with a social studies certification, Keller took many classes that challenged her to engage in public history, a process that makes history more accessible to an average person. For her public history class last fall, Keller was challenged to consider an exhibit that would bring history to anyone. Keller knew she could take it one step further than doing something traditional and expected like building a Colonial exhibit. (more…)

Writing a person’s biography can be a form of service, an assignment and even a gift. Combining a desire to improve her students’ writing skills with a desire to encourage multigenerational relationships, Helen Walker, an associate professor of writing at Messiah College, created a unique first-year seminar course. The Chosen Road, offered for the third consecutive year and the fifth year overall, brings together two very different generations through the act of writing. (more…)

You might not expect a historian of Medieval and Renaissance Europe to be among the first educators at Messiah College to volunteer to lead a pilot project exploring the impact of mobile technology—in this case, the iPad—on students’ ability to learn. But that’s exactly what happened.

Joseph Huffman, distinguished professor of European history, and the eight students in his fall 2011 Intermediate Latin course exchanged their paper textbooks for iPads loaded with the required texts, relevant apps, supplementary PDFs and a Latin-English dictionary. The primary goal was to advance the learning of Latin. The secondary goal was to determine whether the use of the iPad improved, inhibited or did not affect their ability to learn a foreign language. (more…)

Just a few miles south of Messiah College, a 244-year-old farm is the site of an archaeological dig involving Messiah students, young participants in the Oakes Museum Curator Club, and older adults from nearby Messiah Village’s Pathways Institute for Lifelong Learning. The treasures from this effort aren’t simply the artifacts buried beneath the ground.  The great value, according to the dig directors, is in collaboratively exploring regional history, answering real research questions and adopting keen problem solving skills.

David Pettegrew, a professor in the Department of History, and Ken Mark, director of the Oakes Museum of Natural History, are overseeing the dig at the Stouffer Farm, a York County property dating back to 1767. The dig has been underway since fall 2010. (more…)

This year’s Humanities Symposium, which took place from Feb. 20-25, was centered on the theme “The Transforming Book.” This topic proved apropos in an era when there is uncertainty about the future of the printed book as we know it.

Throughout the week, various faculty and student panels and colloquia explored the transforming and transformational role the book has played and continues to play. There were presentations on subjects ranging from Don Quixote to six-year-olds’ interactions with e-books.

The week’s most anticipated event was the symposium keynote address. On Feb. 23, Anthony Grafton, Henry Putnam University Professor of History and the Chairperson of the Council of the Humanities at Princeton University, delivered the symposium keynote address, entitled, “The Book: Its Future and its Past.” He began his lecture by quoting the first sentences of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, emphasizing that at this point in the history of book, we “are going straight to heaven and straight the other way” in terms of the future of the book. (more…)

Speaking on the role of civility in public life, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities and former Iowa congressman James Leach delivered the keynote lecture Feb. 25 in Hostetter Chapel during the Spring 2011 Humanities Symposium, sponsored by Messiah College’s Center for Public Humanities. Leach’s lecture “Friendship in the Public Sphere: Civility in a Fractured Society” highlighted the symposium’s theme of friendship.

“Basic civility is how people interrelate in society,” said Leach, who served 30 years in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Regardless of intelligence, says Leach, everyone can learn something from one another because each person has a unique experience and perspective to share. Civility requires the ability to understand the views of others and come to a compromise.

During the lecture, Leach offered the audience 10 “two-minute crash courses in American public life” in which he covered such topics as political science, psychology, journalism, sports and physics. As part of his psychology “crash course,” Leach explained that when one person has a different view than another, each person thinks the other is immoral. In all areas, he said it was crucial to be able to put oneself in another person’s shoes.

Friendship that reaches across ideological and political difference means not just politeness, but an openness to listen, learn from and even collaborate with those with whom one disagrees. In the public life of a democracy, in particular, such friendships–when seen in their public expressions of courtesy, curiosity in the other person’s views and decency in the treatment of one another– builds up the republic and sets an example for the best in citizenship. Civility as a virtue equates to not only “good citizenship” but also a state of mind refined by a liberal education. As a result, Leach’s keynote address about civility as a form of public friendship proved beneficial to the audience both as citizens and as members of a liberal arts community.

Other symposium events held during the week of Feb. 21-25 included the chapel “Spiritual Friendship: Sowing an Ethic of Love,” the film series “The Wooden Camera: Friendship in Post-Apartheid South Africa,” guest lecture series “Literary Friendship: Henry James and Edith Wharton” and many other lectures and faculty-student colloquia.

Story by Sarah Fleischman’13.

Colleagues and friends Jim LaGrand, professor of American history, and Bernardo Michael, associate professor of history and director of The Center for Public Humanities, talk about Michael’s journey from his home country of India to Messiah College, a place that wasn’t even on his radar screen when he began looking for a teaching position after completing his doctorate.

Michael, after several interviews at Messiah, was impressed with how the College seemed to be “moving with a sense of vision and intentionality.” He joined the faculty in 2001, and in this Listen Up! podcast recounts his journey of thousands of miles and his affection for the Messiah College community.
In this photo, Michael hosts students and alumni in his home for a weekly time of sharing food and fellowship.

As a young child, Henry Louis Gates was introduced to a cabinet full of scrapbooks chronicling major events in the life of his family and community. One scrapbook, containing the obituary of Jane Gates, sparked in Gates a desire to uncover his genealogical roots.

According to the obituary, Jane Gates was “an estimable colored woman.” As a young boy just nine years old, Gates didn’t know what the word “estimable” meant, but the phrase stuck with him and later that night, he pulled his red dictionary off the shelf and looked the word up. Estimable, meaning deserving of admiration or respect, seemed well-suited, Gates thought, to define a woman who was a slave until 1865 and then purchased the Gates family home in Cumberland, Maryland in 1870.

So intrigued by this “estimable” women of his family’s past, Gates began interviewing family members and tracing his family tree.

With this family tale, an evening of storytelling and sharing facts and stats about genetics and genealogy was underway. Gates, visiting Messiah as the keynote lecturer for the spring humanities symposium and the Centennial, presented an informative, entertaining lecture to a large, captive audience in Brubaker Auditorium on Feb. 25

What Gates learned from exploring his own family tree and from a serious case of what he coined “Alex Haley’s ’Roots’ envy” inspired his hit PBS television series, “African American Lives.” The program identifies prominent people from various ethnic backgrounds and uses a combination of genetics and genealogy to uncover greater depths of their family history. The results can be surprising, said Gates, as sometimes family myths that have been passed down for generations are debunked.

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The 2009 graduates of the Hoverter Course.

“My brain was fuzzy from chemotherapy,” explained Linda Porter about why she pursued the opportunity to participate in Messiah College’s Hoverter Course. “And, because of the Course, my curiosity was sparked, my perspectives loosened, and I was changed in many ways.”

Porter was one of 11 students whose life was positively impacted by the 25-week Hoverter Course, an intensive humanities program sponsored by the College’s Center for Public Humanities and made possible by the generous support of the Hoverter Foundation.

Course graduates earned three Messiah College credits for successfully completing classes taught by Messiah College faculty in writing, communication, critical/ethical thinking, creative arts, and history/civics.

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