Oct 27 Tuesday
Course description:
College is a crucial institution in which our society works through its expectations for young people. This course explores the purposes of college education through the first great book on the philosophy of education, Plato’s Republic. We read The Republic in conversation with other thinkers including Aristotle, Confucius, John Stuart Mill, Virginia Woolf, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King. For the 325th anniversary of Yale’s founding, we also explore the changing conception of college education at Yale over the centuries and read some of the college’s and the university’s key founding documents. Themes include the development of personal character, participation in a community, preparation for citizenship, and conversation with others on intellectual matters. We also explore some of the social and economic functions of college education.
The 2026 DeVane Lecture series will be led by Pericles Lewis, Dean of Yale College and Douglas Tracy Smith Professor of Comparative Literature
The class is free and open to the public and will run on Mondays and Wednesdays from 2:30 to 3:20 p.m., from September 2 to December 9, 2026.
Oct 28 Wednesday
This exhibition explores the enduring fascination with ancient Egyptian art and culture (dubbed “Egyptomania” by 19th-century Europeans) through a selection of paintings, prints, photographs, and decorative art from the early 19th century to the present day.
These objects, from the humble to the refined, from the shamelessly commercial to the Afrofuturist, represent the range of artistic responses to – and misconceptions about – ancient Egyptian visual culture.
Paradoxically, this enthusiasm for Egyptian symbols and motifs contributed to the erasure of the ancient Egyptian people themselves, as popular memory exoticized their beliefs and customs. The exhibition will examine how these objects reflect the phenomenon of “Egyptomania” over the last two centuries and will position their oversimplified or stereotypical narratives in conversation with current archaeological understandings of ancient Egyptian culture.
Join us for a special Gallery talk with Marice Rose, PhD (Professor of Art History & Visual Culture)!
About the Speaker: Andy Hoffman is the Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan; a position that holds joint appointments in the Stephen M. Ross School of Business and the School for Environment and Sustainability. He has published 18 books and over 100 articles/book chapters. His work has been covered in The New York Times, Scientific American, Time, Wall Street Journal, Atlantic, and National Public Radio. His books include Business School and the Noble Purpose of the Market: Correcting the Systemic Failures of Shareholder Capitalism (2025); Management as a Calling: Leading Business, Serving Society (2021), Business and the Natural Environment (2018), How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate (2015), and Hybrid Organizations: New Business Models for Environmental Leadership (2011).
About the series: The Waide Center for Applied Ethics Seminar Series is a forum for building community and advancing research in Applied Ethics. It encourages jargon-free and supportive discussions that will be accessible to participants with interest in applied ethics and who come from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds. Invited speakers in the series present a work-in-progress or recently published paper on topics relevant to applied ethics. At least half of each meeting is devoted to Q&A and general discussion.
Oct 29 Thursday
Join us for the lecture with Kate Minniti, PhD ( Pratt Institute, Visiting Assistant Professor, History of Art and Design Department)!
Oct 30 Friday