News & Events
May 11, 4:30pm, Social Science Tea Room (SSRB 201)
Roundtable on the occasion of the publication by Yale University Press of Steven J. Zipperstein's Rosenfeld's Lives: Fame, Oblivion, and the Furies of Writing. "Isaac Rosenfeld, Saul Bellow and the Writing Life: Reflections on Fame, Oblivion, Friendship, and Rivalry."
May 21, 4:30pm, Foster 305
Social Thought Colloquium - On the relation between political philosophy and political theology: "The Rejection of God as King in I Samuel 8" by former Social Thought student Aaron Tugendhaft.
May 29, 12:00pm, Foster 305
Doctoral Lecture: "Political Ambition and Political Form in Plutarch's Lives" by Hugh Liebert.
June 8, 6:00pm, Cobb 115
Social Thought Film Colloquium - David Nirenberg will lead us in a discussion of "The Merchant of Venice" staring Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons and Joseph Fiennes.
Committee on Social Thought
The Committee on Social Thought is an interdisciplinary, Ph.D. granting graduate program. Its guiding principle is that the serious study of many academic topics, and of many philosophical, historical, theological and literary works, is best prepared for by a wide and deep acquaintance with the fundamental issues presupposed in all such studies, that students should learn about these issues by acquainting themselves with a select number of major ancient and modern texts in an inter- disciplinary atmosphere, and should only then begin intense work on a specific dissertation topic. In their first few years of study, students select twelve to fifteen foundational or fundamental books that best inform the context and background of the issues they want to write about, and they read and study these books in discussion groups, tutorials, seminars and independently, and then sit a week long qualifying exam on some selection of their books. Learn more...
