A four-week graduate school experience

Charles Wright was given a chance to enjoy a four-week return to graduate school, but without the worry of comprehensive examinations or a dissertation.

Wright, associate professor of philosophy at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University, was selected as a National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) Summer Scholar. He attended the four-week summer institute at Grand Valley (Michigan) State University entitled "Moral Psychology and Education: Putting the Humanities to Work" from May 30-June 24.

Wright applied for the NEH Summer Institute so he could immerse himself in the literature of moral psychology — undistracted by either work or family responsibilities.

"It was the best part of graduate school, learning without the headaches," Wright said.

The NEH is a federal agency that, each summer, supports enrichment opportunities at colleges, universities and cultural institutions, so that faculty can work in collaboration and study with experts in humanities disciplines.

"It was like having a month-long class taught by a series of experts in specific sub-disciplines or specific areas, and having an opportunity to converse with those experts, as well as among ourselves about what we were studying," Wright said.

The institute integrated the work of historical philosophers such as Francis Hutcheson, David Hume, Adam Smith and John Dewey with current theoretical and empirical work in moral psychology.  Major themes of the Institute were to re-examine the role, function and importance of the humanities for moral development and character formation as well as the role that the liberal arts have in contributing to that process for students. In addition to studying the work of philosophers and moral psychologists, Wright and the other scholars studied and discussed the role that art and literature can play in moral development.  

For Wright, the studies and discussions that stuck out the most were philosophical perspectives on art.

"Some of the art we looked at was very abstract and I was pretty skeptical about that... this kind of art seems like it's a conversation among a bunch of experts and I didn't see how that would help me in the classroom working as a non-expert with a bunch of students who are non-experts. But we also considered other works in which the artist was not trying to comment on art, but was trying to comment on society, trying to use visual media to raise important moral and political questions," Wright said.

Although it is not uncommon for philosophers to use art as a teaching aid in the classroom, it is a new approach for Wright - one he now hopes to incorporate into his own classes.

"Art is a way to frame things. Different people learn things differently," he said. "Philosophy tends to be very focused on arguments and words and this is one way to convey certain insights.  But the Institute - particularly some of my colleagues there - introduced me to how another mode of communication could contribute to philosophical goals. It's an interesting idea in principle and I hope I can find ways to make it work in my classes.

"The next time I teach political philosophy, where we will be looking at issues of race and gender, I need to talk with people in the art department to get their suggestions for images that really speak to some of the issues that I would like to be addressing in this class," Wright said.

Adding art to his teaching technique wasn't the only lesson that Wright gathered from his four weeks at the institute. It also helped re-enforce some of the things he admires about CSB/SJU and the philosophy department.  As institutions, CSB/SJU have always emphasized the formative purpose of their educational mission. These formative aspirations are also at work in the curriculum and pedagogical practices of the Philosophy Department.

"For many participants at the Summer Institute it was a new idea to think that the purpose of a liberal arts education might be to foster the development of certain dispositions, and not just the capacity for critical thinking.  But for us, that's what we've been doing all along," Wright said.