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In 1994, classics scholar Richard Garner, PhD, came to 麻豆传媒映画from Yale University with a mission: to take Adelphi's small honors program and, as founding dean, turn it into a full-fledged Honors College.
This year we celebrate thirty years of a dynamic community committed to the life of the mind and an education of depth and breadth, where students learn to read, write, and think across disciplines. Fundamental to the Honors College is our motto Sapere Aude, our commitment to dare to know.
Please join us as we finish out our anniversary year by reading, celebrating, commemorating and contributing together. On the occasion of the 30th Anniversary of the Honors College, please consider making a gift to honor what this special community and its dedicated educators meant to you as a student and thereafter. Your support in this campaign is crucial, and we hope you will participate. The campaign kicks off during Spirit Weekend and will run through December 2025.
Launched in the fall of 1994, the 麻豆传媒映画 Honors College is now celebrating three decades of excellence in education. As part of that celebration, we spoke with the founding dean, Richard Garner, PhD, and the current dean, Susan Dinan, PhD, about the College and how it has evolved over the years.
Join our incoming first-year students in their Honors College Orientation reading! Examining Critic Becca Rothfeld has called this memoir 鈥渁 hybrid beast, a remarkably erudite work of history, criticism and philosophy.鈥� Among her considerations, O鈥橤ieblyn tackles the role of subjective experience in scientific inquiry, the implications of transhumanism, and the consequences of disenchantment, one of the many legacies of the Enlightenment.
Which organizations, projects, and activities will you pursue during this academic year? Do you really need to join a club? To discover one sociologist鈥檚 answer to this question, join Dean Rudolph in reading excerpts from Robert Putnam鈥檚 Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, which we discuss at the Honors College for a special teatime Dean鈥檚 Circle. This 鈥渋nstant classic鈥� of social science has been foundational to our considerations of the role of associational life in American political culture.
In conjunction with Professor Robert Bradley鈥檚 Farewell Lecture, 鈥淎 Collegial Calculus Caper,鈥� on September 17, we invite you to read G.H. Hardy鈥檚 A Mathematician鈥檚 Apology. Professor Bradley has been a key contributor to Honors College coursework, and has advised numerous Honors College senior theses, and we will miss him! Hardy, in his readable apologia, seeks to explain mathematical beauty to a new generation and to support the study of 鈥渕ath for math鈥檚 sake鈥�.
This week, Honors College students will join Dean Craig Carson in attending Bedlam Theater Company鈥檚 production of Jane Austen鈥檚 classic romantic novel, Pride and Prejudice. We invite you to read along with the original! And then, for those of you not able to attend the play, watch one of the fine film adaptations!
Are you familiar with Foreign Affairs? Published by the Council on Foreign Relations, it is one of the world鈥檚 most influential foreign-policy magazines. Bipartisan contributors include diplomats, public officials, policymakers, political scientists and other scholarly experts writing short, but cogent, pieces addressing the most pressing policy issues of our time. To prepare for this week鈥檚 Multidisciplinary Thinking Panel, focused on the United States and the global order, we invite you to read two recent Foreign Affairs articles, Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye, Jr.鈥檚 鈥� and , by economist Mariana Mazzucato.
On the heels of a special Honors College鈥檚 Thirtieth Anniversary event, an Alumni Dean鈥檚 Circle hosted by Dr. Craig Carson, join our honors alumni in reading Richard Powers鈥檚 Playground, an 鈥渆nchanting鈥� novel about 鈥渢he wonders of the ocean and the terrors of A.I鈥�, in the words of New York Times critic Alexandra Jacobs.
Take advantage of the long weekend to delve into Oxford scholar Pekka 贬盲尘盲濒盲颈苍别苍鈥檚 provocative history of Native nations鈥� attempts to challenge European-American colonization. 贬盲尘盲濒盲颈苍别苍, a Bancroft Prize winner, synthesizes a broad swath of scholarship about and by Native Americans in this account of centuries of conflict.
Born in part of Irish playwright Beckett鈥檚 experience as a Resister during World War II, Waiting for Godot has become famous for its minimalism, its existentialism, and its absurdism. Beckett refused naturalism and mimesis in his work, opting instead to observe, 鈥淚t鈥檚 a game, everything is a game鈥� it鈥檚 a game in order to survive.鈥� This week, the Honors College will see Waiting for Godot on Broadway; read along with us (or watch the play online)!
Just in time for Halloween, with its emphasis on disguised identity, comes our reading recommendation for this week: Viet Thanh Nugyen鈥檚 The Sympathizer, which begins, 鈥淚 am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces.鈥� In the New York Times, London correspondent Sarah Lyall explained, 鈥淗is novel is a spy thriller, a philosophical exploration, a coming-of-age tale, the story of what it鈥檚 like to be an immigrant, to be part-Asian, to be the illegitimate child of a forbidden liaison. It鈥檚 about being forced to hide yourself under so many layers that you鈥檙e not sure who you are.鈥� Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the MacArthur 鈥淕enius Grant鈥�, Nguyen is also a professor of English, American Studies and Ethnicity and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California; during Registration this week, consider adding an elective in one of these areas for your Spring semester!
Registration for Spring 2026 begins and Halloween during this week.
Written in 1998 and set in 2032, this sequel to much-heralded Parable of the Sower won the Nebula Award for Best Novel. In the face of constant change and even chaos, how do we create stable meaning? What roles can religion, narrative, and care ethics play in this process? Butler observed, 鈥�Parable of the Sower was a book about problems. I originally intended that Parable of the Talents be a book about solutions. I don鈥檛 have the solutions, so what I鈥檝e done here is looked at the solutions that people tend to reach for when they鈥檙e feeling troubled and confused.鈥� What problems and solutions are foremost for you as we head to the ballot box this week? (Don鈥檛 forget to vote! Local elections are more important than you think!)
The Honors College heads to see the Philharmonic perform the week of Stravinsky later this week, accompanied by our very own Professor Benjamin Serby. Have you read Professor Serby鈥檚 scholarly work? As our seniors sign up for their February thesis progress presentations, we focus on Faculty and Student Scholarship this week and highlight this recent article of Professor Serby鈥檚 from the Journal of the History of Sexuality.
World epics are a prominent feature of our Human Condition great books curriculum. Curious what the sophomores and juniors are reading? Wondering what updates the Honors College has made to the Human Condition syllabus since your days as a student? Check out The Tale of the Heike; like The Iliad, it too originated sung poetry recounting tales of warriors and warfare, in this case a late 12th-century power struggle between the Taira (Heike) and Minamoto (Genji) houses. Sharing epic poetry鈥檚 focus on courage, glory, duty, and fate, The Tale of the Heike exists in several English translations. We recommend Royall Tyler鈥檚 translations for Penguin Classics. During this week, you might also consider how to have an epic experience of the world during International Education Week. Attend one or more global events this week!
Wonder where your apple pie filling really comes from? Take advantage of your turkey coma to lie down and read Raj Patel鈥檚 excellent Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System. Why are rates of both hunger and obesity skyrocketing, and how can we understand the choices that have led to this contradictory state of affairs? Even more important, what can we do about it? Read Patel to learn how we can act to improve sustenance at home and around the world.
The love, passion, and art that characterized the life of the bohemians recounted in Puccini鈥檚 La Boh猫me, which we will see this week at the Metropolitan Opera, also inspired 麻豆传媒映画alumnus Jonathan Larson鈥檚 Rent. Larson鈥檚 tale is a direct descendant of La Boh猫me, but so too, in its way, is rocker Patti Smith鈥檚 memoir, Just Kids, her account of starting out in Manhattan during the 1960s and 1970s as a poet and a singer, arriving with a suitcase and a copy of Rimbaud鈥檚 Illuminations. Smith鈥檚 desire to live the life of a poet-artist, a life of non-conformity, led her to Robert Mapplethorpe, the Floral Park-born photographer who would become her best friend, confidant and collaborator. Winner of the National Book Award, Just Kids tells their story of these 鈥� in the words of the New York Times, 鈥渂ohemian soul mates鈥濃�� with Mapplethorpe in the role of Mimi?
Take a quick break before Final Exams kick off to 鈥� at least begin 鈥� reading Kaveh Akbar鈥檚 widely celebrated debut novel, Martyr! Inspired by Annie Dillard, Vladimir Nabokov, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison, among others, Iranian-American poet Akbar has written a wholly original novel that tackles timeless themes of metaphysics, spirituality and ethics. As the novel鈥檚 young hero, Cyrus, makes a pilgrimage to the Brooklyn Museum 鈥� currently celebrating its 200th anniversary 鈥� we recommend that you do the same. The anniversary exhibition, 鈥�Breaking the Mold: Brooklyn Museum at 200鈥�, is on display until February 2026, so check it out this cultural event over Winter Break!
Celebrate 30 Years of Adelphi’s Honors College by reading 30 Texts in 2025!
In this compelling work, , Brooks examines the history of the important Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in fifteenth-century Spain and the work of a modern rare book expert.
Read the for more on this captivating book.
In this groundbreaking book, Kuhn explores the history of science and the nature of scientific progress. His ideas about research and the expectations we have for disciplinary change will challenge and expand our understanding of how science evolves.
Zhang is one for few social commentators who writes in English for an international audience. Her articles on China鈥檚 social, cultural, and political climate have been published widely, including in the New York Times and The Guardian.
This sharp and witty comedy unfolds in an Iranian classroom where adult English learners prepare for their proficiency exam. As they navigate a linguistic playground, their wildly different dreams, frustrations, and secrets come to light. Can they overcome the limits of language to discover what they truly want to say?
Read the for more insight into this celebrated play.
This timeless Persian allegory takes readers on a mystical journey with a group of birds seeking enlightenment under the guidance of their leader, the hoopoe. Through poetic storytelling, it explores universal themes of self-discovery, spiritual growth, and the pursuit of truth.
Take this opportunity to engage with one of the most celebrated works of Sufi literature, now integral to our shared academic exploration of the human condition.
Hochschild poses a critical question: How do two-earner households manage wage work, kinwork, and housework? Are things truly equal? This influential book introduced the term 鈥渟econd shift鈥� to describe the challenges faced by working women balancing careers and domestic responsibilities.
The Shahnameh, or The Book of Kings is the longest poem written by a single poet, tracing Persian collective memory from its mythic origins through the Arab Conquest of the 7th century. From Rostam鈥檚 heroics to the tragic love of Bijan and Manijeh, Persian-speaking people of all ages across the Middle East and South Asia can recite lines from it by heart to this day.
In this compelling work, Hamnet, O鈥橣arrell examines the life and tragic death of Shakespeare鈥檚 son, exploring the profound impact of loss on a family. The novel weaves together themes of grief, love, and the bonds between parent and child.
In this compelling work, Moby Dick, Melville examines obsession, fate, and the human spirit through the tale of Captain Ahab鈥檚 relentless pursuit of the great white whale.
In this compelling work, Othello, Shakespeare examines themes of jealousy, betrayal, and race through the tragic story of Othello and his deceitful ensign, Iago.
In this inventive and satirical work, Machado de Assis presents the reflections of Br谩s Cubas, a recently deceased man, who recounts his life with wit, irony and philosophical insight.
Read the for more on this groundbreaking book.
In Leaves of Grass, Whitman celebrates the human spirit, nature, and democracy through an innovative and expansive poetic style that reshaped American literature.
In this powerful oral history, Studs Terkel brings to life the voices of everyday Americans, offering a candid and heartfelt look at their work, struggles, and aspirations.
