Harman Academy for Polymathic Study, DML 241

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” –Jack, from The Shining

“Almost all creativity,” wrote psychologist Abraham Maslow, “involves purposeful play.”  The idea that play is critical to our human landscape in germinating inspiration and creativity has actually been around for a long time.  The line from the 1980 horror film, The Shining, above was first published in a 1659 book of English proverbs, but its origins can be traced back millennia.  Play -- meaningful, purposeful play -- cultivates in us greater creativity,...

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." –Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

With the critical acclaim and popularity of the musical Hamilton, historic renderings on the stage have gained new attention from the historical profession. Heather Nathans in the Journal of the Early Republic recently observed, “artists used Hamilton to consider critical moments in the nation’s passionate and often painful debates about race, citizenship, and belonging.” ...

“For I am yearning to visit the limits of the all-nurturing Earth, and Oceans, from whom the gods are sprung.”--Homer

The gods, or alternatively, the sources of life, do indeed spring from the ocean, and Biological Science Professor Jed Fuhrman, like Homer, has been visiting the “all nurturing” sea, producing an epic story of his own.  We polymaths have ventured across the bay to Catalina for our student retreat for three years now and a dolphin visit alongside of our ferry, or even the rare sighting of a whale ignites such excitement in us all—to see the...

“The number of hate groups operating in the [U.S.] in 2016 remained at near-historic highs.”  --The Southern Poverty Law Center

“[T]he Internet has for some time provided extremists with a sense of community, that they are not alone in their beliefs.”  --Rick Eaton                       

When the development of web technologies vastly popularized the Internet in the 1990s, many were hopeful that these platforms would democratize access to...

“A polymath is one who not only masters several disciplines, but who synthesizes them, integrates them.”—Sidney Harman

Professor Tracy Fullerton is a master weaver of multiple threads of knowledge. She is an internationally recognized experimental game designer and her research and teaching treats game design as a collaborative, integrative exercise.  Her latest foray into weaving brings her game design expertise into partnership with Henry David Thoreau, yes, that Henry David Thoreau, the 19th century transcendentalist and founder of environmentalism.  Through...

“Love and desire are the spirits’ wings to great deeds.” –Goethe (18th c.)

“They told me to take a street-car named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries…”  --Blanche, from A Street-car Named Desire (mid-20th c.)

“Love abounds in all things, excels from the depths to beyond the stars, is lovingly disposed to all things.” --Hildegarde of Bingen (12th c.)

Ideas about love and desire are disparate and ever changing across space and time. It is reasonable to say that love and desire are the most powerful forces in...

"Everyone should know that you can’t live in any other way than by cultivating the soul.” –Apuleius, Roman writer

A hoe is an instrument a farmer uses to cultivate the land, to prepare the soil for planting and growth.  What are the tools we might employ in the cultivation of our self, of our soul?  Words can be used to churn up the soil of our soul and reveal the life underneath. Words too are seeds, which when planted in lyrical rows spring forth as poetry.  David St. John is one such sower of words who cultivates a deeper understanding of our...

PLEASE NOTE DATE CHANGE: This event will now be happening on Tuesday, October 3rd.

“Racism is still with us. But it is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and, hopefully, we shall overcome.” --Rosa Parks

“I speak not for myself but for those without voice… those who have fought for their rights… their right to live in peace, their right to be treated with dignity, their right to equality of opportunity, their right to be educated.” --Malala Yousafzai

The sentiments above live out in the scholarship and life of Estela...

"There is no such thing as paranoia. Your worst fears can come true at any moment."  --Hunter S. Thompson, author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself…and, of course, the Boogieman."  --Pat Paulsen, comedian

Some things are not the best to cultivate.  Take for instance, misplaced, inordinate fears that are broadcast across the airwaves everyday--bear attacks, flesh-eating bacteria, work-place violence. The likelihood of any of these terrors happening is exponentially lower than getting hit by lightening....

“The best way to capture moments is to pay attention. This is how we cultivate mindfulness.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn

“Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin, as self-neglecting.” – William Shakespeare

Mindfulness is more than just a mindset.  It is the purposeful practice of discovering and cultivating the moments in life, and in those moments breath more meaning into our life.  Varun Soni, Vice Provost for Campus Wellness and Crisis Intervention and dean of Religious Life and co-chair of the Mindful USC initiative, hopes that the USC community...