Quick Search
More Campus News
University Joins 'Reacting to the Past' Consortium
Posted 2/24/2005
The University of Hartford has joined a nationwide consortium of institutions that are embracing an innovative teaching method called Reacting to the Past.
The program engages students in elaborate games set during critical junctures in the history of ideas. Students take and perform roles, competing to achieve victory objectives while making arguments informed by classic texts like Plato’s Republic and Confucius’s Analects. The method was originally developed as part of Barnard College’s first-year seminar program.
A workshop introducing faculty to Reacting to the Past will be held today (Feb. 24) from 3– 4:30 p.m. in the Gray Conference Center, Room C. Thursday’s event is the first in a series of workshops organized by University of Hartford Distinguished Teaching Humanist Jack Banks. Moderated by Jim Highland, assistant professor of philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences, the workshop will feature David Henderson, a Trinity College chemist and author of a game on evolution and creationism in Kansas City in 1999, and Daniel Gardner, a Smith College historian and author of a game on a Ming dynasty succession crisis.
Reacting to the Past has secured several FIPSE grants and in 2004 was awarded the Hesburgh Award for developing excellence in undergraduate teaching from TIAA-CREF. Articles on the program have appeared in The Chronicle Review, The Christian Science Monitor, The Des Moines Register, and The New York Times.
For more information on the program, a list of consortium members, and titles of current Reacting to the Past games, visit www.barnard.edu/reacting.
You also can contact Chris Anderson in Politics and Government (chranders@hartford.edu), Jim Highland in Philosophy (highland@hartford.edu), or Leslie Lindenauer (lindenaue@hartford.edu).
The program engages students in elaborate games set during critical junctures in the history of ideas. Students take and perform roles, competing to achieve victory objectives while making arguments informed by classic texts like Plato’s Republic and Confucius’s Analects. The method was originally developed as part of Barnard College’s first-year seminar program.
A workshop introducing faculty to Reacting to the Past will be held today (Feb. 24) from 3– 4:30 p.m. in the Gray Conference Center, Room C. Thursday’s event is the first in a series of workshops organized by University of Hartford Distinguished Teaching Humanist Jack Banks. Moderated by Jim Highland, assistant professor of philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences, the workshop will feature David Henderson, a Trinity College chemist and author of a game on evolution and creationism in Kansas City in 1999, and Daniel Gardner, a Smith College historian and author of a game on a Ming dynasty succession crisis.
Reacting to the Past has secured several FIPSE grants and in 2004 was awarded the Hesburgh Award for developing excellence in undergraduate teaching from TIAA-CREF. Articles on the program have appeared in The Chronicle Review, The Christian Science Monitor, The Des Moines Register, and The New York Times.
For more information on the program, a list of consortium members, and titles of current Reacting to the Past games, visit www.barnard.edu/reacting.
You also can contact Chris Anderson in Politics and Government (chranders@hartford.edu), Jim Highland in Philosophy (highland@hartford.edu), or Leslie Lindenauer (lindenaue@hartford.edu).
