[Acbostonalums] Fwd: Thought-provoking evening May 14

[Barbara Wallraff]

You're invited to a buffet supper and a conversation about Courses in  
Courage: Antioch College and the Social Sciences, with Richard Couto  
and Gordie Fellman, who are respectively the editor of and a  
contributor to the book. No matter what happens with the College in  
the meantime (there is not yet any news!), this conversation couldn’t  
be more timely. Read the accolades that Courses in Courage has  
received, at the bottom of this e-mail, to see why.

The event is the week after next, Wednesday, May 14, at 6:30, in the  
2nd floor Common Room of Harvard University’s Dudley House (in the  
corner of Harvard Yard nearest the Red Line's Harvard “T” stop).

To sign up for the supper at 6:30 ($15.75), the discussion starting  
at 7:15, and Q&A afterward about the latest developments at the  
College, click here: http://tinyurl.com/5wyhpx

Or reply to this e-mail for more information.

Richard Couto is Professor in the Antioch University Ph.D. Program in  
Leadership and Change. He is the author of 10 books on leadership,  
democracy, poverty, racial justice, health, and related topics.

Gordie Fellman ’57 is Professor of Sociology and Chair, Peace,  
Conflict, and Coexistence Studies at Brandeis University. Gordie is  
the author of Rambo and the Dalai Lama: The Compulsion to Win and Its  
Threat to Human Survival.

Other chapters in Courses in Courage are by Antioch alumni David  
Apter, Cynthia Fuchs Epstein,  Fred Greenstein, Alan Pred, and Joan  
Straumanis and former faculty member Heinz Eulau. These  
internationally known scholars were all on campus at Antioch during  
the 1950s. The essays were originally prepared for a conference on  
the courage of social scientists that took place in Yellow Springs as  
part of the celebration of Antioch College's sesquicentennial. Copies  
of the book will be available at the event, at a discounted price and  
for the benefit of the College.

Craig Calhoun, President of the Social Science Research Council,  
wrote this about Courses in Courage:

During the 1950s [an] extraordinary group of intellectuals entered  
social science and helped to remake both it and the larger social  
world. Though they were exceptional individuals, they were also the  
products of impressive social institutions. One of the most important  
was Antioch College, and it is on this formative environment for  
courage as well as creativity that the scholars writing in this book  
reflect. Their essays are telling and stimulating. They should be  
assigned to all undergraduates considering careers in social science,  
and they will repay the attention of graduate students and professors.

Warren Bennis ’51, the author of On Becoming a Leader and  
Distinguished Professor of Management, University of Southern  
California, wrote:

This is a book for those teachers who see themselves as mentors and  
leaders.

Mary Field Belenky, co-author of Women’s Ways of Knowing and A  
Tradition That Has No Name, wrote:

Antioch’s interdisciplinary approach to the social sciences at mid- 
century was remarkable. Knowledge was to be "constructed" not  
"learned." Collaboration was encouraged. Everyone was expected to do  
outstanding work. Social goals and values were central to all of the  
discussions. These chapters and the remarkable careers of the authors  
illustrate the extraordinary power of this educational approach.

Community-Wealth.org, a project of The Democracy Collaborative,  
published this description of the book:

Today, efforts are under way at a number of universities to promote  
community engagement. In developing these efforts, current activists  
would do well to learn from the experiences of a previous generation  
of similarly minded scholars at Antioch University in Ohio. Edited by  
Richard Couto, a founding member of Antioch's Ph.D. "Leadership of  
Change" program, Courses in Courage includes essays by six Antioch  
professors who, starting in the McCarthy years of the 1950s, helped  
make Antioch College a national center of an activist scholarship  
deeply rooted in social goals and values.

And Richard Couto himself published this in the New York Times last  
June:

When we examine one set of Antioch's golden years, the two decades  
after World War II, we find a curriculum that instilled the courage  
for fearless thinking. The discernible elements of that curriculum  
are continuums constructed from dichotomies, including students and  
faculty; ambitious goals and high expectations for student  
performance; the explication of personal values and reflection on  
basic assumptions; and learning by doing and action research.

The Boston Antioch Alumni Group hopes to see you at this stimulating,  
inspiring event!


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