Spring 2016 Humanities Forum

La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc (“The Passion of Joan of Arc”)
7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 3
Guzman Hall, Room 250

Raphael Shargel of the Providence College Department of English will present a screening and discussion of this 1928 French silent film directed by Carl Theodore Dreyer and starring Renée Jeanne Falconetti.

To Kill a Mockingbird
2:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 12
Guzman Hall, Room 250

As part of a two-week series on the work of Harper Lee, Suzanne Fournier of the Providence College Department of English will present a screening and discussion of this 1962 film directed by Robert Mulligan.

Jacob Klein: European Scholar and American Teacher
2:30 p.m. Friday, March 11
Aquinas Lounge (reception to follow)

The Humanities Forum hosts the keynote address of the third annual Jacob Klein Conference. Eva Brann, former dean and longest-serving tutor at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Md., will speak on the legacy of Jacob Klein.

A Discussion of the Work of Harper Lee
2:30 p.m. Friday, March 18
Ruane Center for the Humanities, Room 105
Reception to follow in Ruane Center for the Humanities Great Room

Curt Columbus, the Richard L. Bready Artistic Director of the Trinity Repertory Company; Mary Farrell of the Providence College Department of Theatre, Dance and Film; and Margaret Manchester of the Providence College Department of History will discuss the work of Harper Lee.

The American Enlightenment
2:30 p.m. Friday, April 1
Ruane Center for the Humanities, Room 105
Reception to follow in Ruane Center for the Humanities Great Room

The Humanities Forum hosts The Rev. Cornelius P. Forster, O.P. Making History Lecture Series (sponsored by The Gladys Brooks Foundation). Gordon Wood, Alva O. Way University Professor and Professor of History Emeritus at Brown University, and the recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for History for The Radicalism of the American Revolution, will discuss “why the American Revolutionaries thought the United States was the most enlightened nation in the world.”

The Anti-Democratic Origins of the U.S. Constitution
2:30 p.m. Friday, April 8
Ruane Center for the Humanities, Room 105
Reception to follow in Ruane Center for the Humanities Great Room

The Humanities Forum hosts The Rev. Cornelius P. Forster, O.P. Making History Lecture Series (sponsored by The Gladys Brooks Foundation). Woody Holton, McCausland Professor of History, Department of History, University of South Carolina, will speak on the “Anti-Democratic Origins of the U. S. Constitution.”

Madison’s Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention
2:30 p.m. Friday, April 15
Ruane Center for the Humanities, Room 105

The Humanities Forum hosts The Rev. Cornelius P. Forster, O.P. Making History Lecture Series(sponsored by The Gladys Brooks Foundation). Professor Mary Sarah Bilder of Boston College Law School will speak on James Madison’s notes on the Constitutional Convention.

Totalitarianism and the Revival of Liberal Education in America
2:30 p.m. Friday, April 22
Ruane Center for the Humanities, Room 105
Reception to follow in Ruane Center for the Humanities Great Room

Susan Hanssen, Associate Professor of History, University of Dallas, will speak on totalitarianism and the history of liberal arts education.

Past Forums

• Spring 2026
• Fall 2025
• Spring 2025
• Fall 2024
• Spring 2024
• Fall 2023
• Spring 2023
• Fall 2022
• Spring 2022
• Spring 2021
• Fall 2021
• Spring 2021
• Fall 2020
• Spring 2020
• Fall 2019
• Spring 2019
• Fall 2018
• Spring 2018
• Fall 2017
• Spring 2017
• Fall 2016
• Spring 2016

Forum Leadership

Iain Bernhoft, Humanities Forum Coordinator

Humanities Forum Committee:

• Patrick Breen, Department of History
• Alison Caplan, Department of Foreign Language Studies
• Dana Dillon, Departments of Theology and Public and Community Service Studies
• Jennifer Illuzzi, Director of the Development of Western Civilization; Department of History
• James Janecek, Department of Art and Art History
• James Keating, Department of Theology and Director of the Humanities Program​
• Patrick Macfarlane​, Department of Philosophy
• Michael Mathes, Department of Economics and Associate Director of the Honors Program
• Erin Schmidt, Department of Theatre, Dance, and Film
• Rev. Jordan Zajac, O.P. ’04, Department of English

Contact