Directed Studies lectures and seminars are complemented by a series of six colloquia throughout the year. Distinguished speakers from in- and outside of Yale are invited to speak on major issues arising from our work in the program, related disciplines not included in the program, and the relationship between Western civilization and the non-Western world. Lectures are one hour long, followed by questions and discussion.
Colloquia speakers in recent years include David McCullough (on writing history), Seyla Benhabib (on natural right or “the right to have rights”), Henry Louis Gates, jr. (on W.E.B. DuBois and the Harlem Renaissance), Steven Breyer (on humanities and law), Shelley Kagan (on ethics), David Quint (on the Renaissance imagination), Amy Chua (on Tiger Parenting), David Bromwich (on the moral imagination), Stephen Greenblatt (on a turning point of the western tradition), Garry Wills (on St. Augustine), Gary Tomlinson (on musicology), Robert Fagles (on translation and the Odyssey). Other recent topics include the Origin of Consciousness in Greek art, Christians, Muslims, and Jews in medieval Spain, the American Declaration of Independence, Arabic literature and the Western Tradition, Classical Greek and Chinese epic, Wagner and the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk, and Contemporary Reception of Classical Texts and the Project of Directed Studies. View the List of past colloquia.
Directed Studies Colloquia take place from 4–5:30pm in the auditorium of the Whitney Humanities Center (unless otherwise noted). Refreshments are served beginning at 3:30 in Whitney Humanities Center 108.