Harman Academy for Polymathic Study, DML 241

A conversation with Richard Meyer.

Covering Quadrants:  (3) the tapestry of knowledge; and (4) communication. 

Covering Quadrants:  (1) critical and integrative thinking; (2) study of the polymaths 

Theater is by definition a complete—hence polymathic—art form and has been so since Ancient Greece. Of all art forms, theater is closest to life itself in that it fuses character, action, and time.  As Aristotle once argued, tragic theater has a cathartic effect and comic theater re-stabilizes an uncertain world.  Madeline Puzo, Dean of the USC School of Theatre, believes that the world needs more theater if it is to get its act together.

In times past, media remained generic.  Print was print, audio was audio, images were images.  Perhaps it was the fusion of film and sound that first challenged these divisions.  University Professor and Founder and Director of The Labyrinth Project, Professor Kinder began her academic career as a literary historian and critic.  Over the years she has developed into a leading expert in the field of multi-media studies. In this presentation, Professor Kinder will explore with students her current experimental work on database narratives and archival cultural history, where...

Time, place, and gender are fused into an interpretive alembic by one of the noted polymaths of our era, Kate Flint, a veteran of Oxford and Rutgers, now at USC.  A cultural and literary historian of breadth and depth, Kate Flint embodies the notion that, as far as USC is concerned, the British Invasion has only begun.

Reaching back to Vitruvius, Renaissance architects revived classical architecture, while animating it with disciplined, present-tense passion.  In a few crowded decades, classicism was revived from a thousand year quietus—and transformed into a prototype for the next 500 years of architectural design.

The Revival of Learning depended upon—and stimulated—the assembly of great libraries, the restoration of ancient texts, and the codification of knowledge.  Thus librarians and library founders made of librarianship a polymathic science.

The Renaissance represents a paradox. On the one hand, it gloried in man and the world. On the other hand, it was the age of Reformation and Counter-Reformation across Europe and European outposts in Asia and the New World. Religion acquired learning, and learning acquired religion in these tumultuous years.

Medicine is by definition a polymathic pursuit.  Renaissance physicians not only revived Galen, they went beyond this classical source to re-establish medicine as an experimental science and art form—and, in so doing, they restored medicine to its ancient and rightful place as nursery of arts and sciences.