The 2006-2008 Academic Theme
Great Minds That Shaped Our Intellectual World
Buffalo State's academic theme for 2006-08 is "Great Minds That Shaped Our Intellectual World," a theme that focuses on individuals from around the world and over the centuries.
This is a sequel to the academic theme of 2004–2006, "Think Big: Twentieth-Century Americans Who Changed Our Minds and Our Lives" (for a full list of CD contents from 2004-2006 CD, click on link in left column).
The college community went through an extensive nomination process to identify 15 individuals, some well known and others less familiar, whose lives will be featured as part of the theme, and thus become central to class discussions and special events in the coming two years. The "great minds" selected represent a variety of academic disciplines and 12 countries outside America. These "great minds" were chosen for the campus to consider and study as influential intellectuals who played a considerable role in shaping the foundations of modern thought.
For the new academic theme, a CD has been produced that contains writings, art, and music from the lives, works, and times of the 15 identified "great minds." The CD will also include contemporary works derived from their intellectual achievements.
Click on each person for a list of material that will be included on the CD (list in left column). Click here for a PDF document listing all contents of the CD.
The academic theme CD has been distributed to all first-year students. It is expected that students will find the CD particularly useful and appropriate in the new Intellectual Foundations course, BSC 101: Foundations of Inquiry, since the "great minds" represented in the theme contributed to significant foundational developments in the cognate areas, as well as advances in critical thinking, both areas the curriculum of that course explores. The sourcebook developed for BSC 101 will include additional selections related to the academic theme.
Other first-year classes, ENG 101/102, First-Year Seminars, and courses in Learning Communities are expected to use the academic theme CD for readings and discussion.
Academic Theme Events
Check here throughout the year for additional material as events occur related to the Academic Theme.
David Leavitt, author of many books including The Man Who Knew Too Much: Alan
Turing and the Origins of the Computer, gave the Bonnie and Vern L. Bullough Academic Convocation Address for Buffalo State College on Thursday, September 21, 2006. Here is the text of his speech.
For more information about the CD, please contact Eileen Merberg, University College, (716) 878-5906, e-mail: merberen@buffalostate.edu
