Clusters & Seminars
Cluster: The Natural World
Throughout recorded history, women and men have sought to understand the world around us. Fundamental discoveries in the sciences – together with insights from art and literature, philosophy and religion – have revealed much about the world and our place in it. Human beings, beyond all other species, have the ability to shape and describe their environment and, therefore, the environments of all other species. What have been the consequences? What are our responsibilities?
Examples of seminars
The Chemistry of Life
The Eve of the Atom
Nature Poetry
Environmental Biology/Environmental Policy
American Literature and the American Landscape
Ethics and the Natural World
Cluster: The Divine
Our relationship to the divine is a search for the truth; it involves “faith seeking understanding.” This search begins with the traditional metaphysical questions: Why is there something rather than nothing? Why are things as they are, and not some other way? This inquiry leads to still more questions: What do we mean by the divine? What do we mean by faith?
Examples of seminars
Hearing the Divine
Jesuit Spirituality
Science and Religion
Literature and the Bible
Psychology and the Religious Experience
Anthropology of Religion
Cluster: The Self
Each of us experiences the world as a self, a being who is self-aware, reflective, connected with others, and unique. What is this most fundamental unit in the experience of being human? Where does it come from? What is the relationship of the self to society and to others? How do insights from a range of other areas – science and social science, arts and humanities – contribute to our understanding?
Examples of seminars
Writing the Self in Fiction
Finding Identities: Coming of Age
Genes and Personal Identity
American Heroism
The Biology of Consciousness
Cluster: Global Society
References to living in “a global society” are part of our daily discourse. What, however, does this mean, and how did we get here? What are the benefits and costs of the circulation of goods, services, ideas, and peoples among nations and cultures? How do cultural differences complete and enrich life worldwide?
Examples of seminars
Industry and Empire
Islam and the West: Encounters
Southeast Asian Lives
History, War, and Memory
When Worlds Collide
Cluster: Core Human Questions
Through history and across cultures, people have posed fundamental human questions about the meaning and purpose of life. Many of these questions are variations of the one posed by Leo Tolstoy: “How then shall we live?” Students and faculty explore these questions together from a variety of perspectives.
Examples of seminars
Freedom and the Meaning of Life
Made in America/Made in Society
Shaped by Evolution
Suffering and Beauty
Cuisine, Culture, and Identity
For a complete list of current Montserrat seminars, please visit the Registrar's Web site.