Category: Academics

Rome

This compilation of educational materials range from TED Talks to articles to interactive virtual recreations of Rome circa 320 CE. All of Professor Voekel’s generously provided audio-visual resources are listed below for any Aeneid readers, or anyone simply curious about Ancient Rome, to peruse.

Land Acknowledgments Are Just Moral Exhibitionism

Here’s a powerful reminder of our concerning actions as a nation in retribution to the immemorial owners of the lands we occupy. These statements relieve the speaker and the audience of the responsibility to think about Indigenous peoples, at least until the next public event. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/against-land-acknowledgements-native-american/620820/  

Core Curriculum’s First In-Person Lecture since 2020

We’re back! After over a year of online classes, staying home, and biweekly covid tests, Boston University’s Core Curriculum has had its first in-person lecture for its Ancient Worlds course, otherwise known as CC101. As tradition would have it, the students were welcomed into the lecture to the glorious sound of Bruce Springsteen’s “Land of […]

Christopher Ricks on Milton and Blasphemy

Christopher Ricks, an esteemed professor in the Editorial Institute and the Core Curriculum here at BU, recently gave a lecture to the CC201 students on Milton and Blasphemy. This lecture discusses the incredible sensitivities of the word blasphemy, what it means to blaspheme, and how anti-blasphemy laws still impact our society today. He also discusses […]

Alter on writing The Art of Biblical Narrative

Robert Alterisa scholar and translator whose rendition of the Pentateuch into English we read in the first-year Core humanists as The Five Books of Moses. Earlier this year, in January, Alter was invited to deliver a lecture to students in Brigham Young University’s program in Ancient Near Eastern Studies. In his talk, he discusses The […]

A Paradigm Shift of his Own: Revisiting Thomas Kuhn

The great thing about science is that it’s not always right. For all the theories, equations, and experiments, scientists are just at the mercy of their subjective opinions as any other thinkers– In other words, science relies on subjective perspective and the consensus of the scientific community to establish what a culture views as an […]

A Tour of Ancient Athens, or the Ups and Downs of Core

As any student who’s been on our Summer Study in Greece program can testify, visiting Athens at any time is a life changing experience. But it would be a dream to see it at the height of its glory, and luckily artist Dimitris Tsalkanis made that dream come true. Tsalkanis spent 13 years making a […]

This May Not End Well

As scholars and human beings, we know that all good things must come to an end. That end may be triumphant, exciting, and incredibly satisfying, or… Not. In her recent BU Today article, our very own Director of the Core Kyna Hamill ponders what makes for a satisfying ending, and why it may matter so […]

Meditation on Remediation

An update from the front lines of the Core classrooms! This week, students are exploring Hamlet, and discovering what it means to remediate a text. Core students know better than anyone that some stories strike such a chord with the human experience that they continue to be told throughout history. Storytellers have always taken source […]

And So It Begins…

At the start of every new year in the Core Curriculum, we like to begin at the very beginning, with the Epic of Gilgamesh. And while it technically remains the same story from year to year, we’re always delighted to watch how different students and professors bring their own views and interpretations to the text. […]