Past Events: Fall 2020


DANTE’S DIVINE COMEDY:

A GUIDE FOR LIFE, POLITICS, AND LOVE

Dr. J. David Franks

June 17th - July 29th, 2020

This introduction to the medieval imagination featured excerpts and discussion from all three books of the Divine Comedy: Inferno, Paradiso, and Purgatorio. Led by Dr. J. David Franks, this seven week seminar attracted students from the greater Harvard community and beyond, averaging over thirty attendees per session, as we discussed social and personal crisis in Dante’s poetic apocalypse.


The Great Conversation: How Should We Live?

Volume III: Ideology and Emancipation

Led by Dr. J. David Franks

Sponsored by the NEH

September - December 2020

The Great Conversation, a twelve week discussion group, took place entirely online through the co-sponsorship of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Featuring texts from Martin Luther through Lord Byron, the sessions garnered over twenty-five participants from the Boston area and beyond, as the online format allowed for us to re-engage with some of our alumni!


Atomic Doctors: The Quandary of Technique

Professor James Nolan, Williams College

October 15th, 2020

In collaboration with the Elm Institute, Harvard University Press, and the Harvard Bookstore, we welcomed Professor James Nolan of Williams College as our Annual Lecture Speaker. Professor Nolan discussed themes from his new book, focusing on the ethics and morality of doctors who gave medical care to those who built the atom bomb. This event took place online through Crowdcast, and was attended by 70 individuals online.


The Wollstonecraft Project

Erika Bachiochi, JD

Fall 2020

In September 2020 we launched The Wollstonecraft Project at AAI! Led by author and legal scholar Erika Bachiochi, JD, the project provides provides university students at Harvard and other colleges in the Greater Boston area with intellectual formation and professional support and mentorship. The Man and Woman, Body and Soul in the Western Tradition year-long seminar began this Fall under this project, garnering eighteen attendees for remote classes.


What is a Harvard Education for? Student Panel

September 11, 2020

In collaboration with the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences, we welcomed three Harvard Students: Saffron Huang, Deepak Singh, and Gabrielle Landry to discuss their experiences at Harvard and what the goal of a Harvard Education is for them.