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Community Seminars

Explore Profound Ideas Together

Academic year 2023-2024

Welcome to the Great Questions Foundation's Community Seminars—a platform for fostering engaging discussions on transformative texts and ideas. The model we've developed for these events helps strangers think productively about difficult and profound ideas together. We're on a mission to support these co-curricular opportunities at Community Colleges nationwide, and we invite you to join us in this enriching journey.

What Are Community Seminars?

Community Seminars are gatherings that bring together students, faculty, staff, and community members throughout the academic year. Our goal is simple: to explore profound ideas and transformative texts through meaningful conversations. These seminars offer a unique space for intellectual growth and connection at your community college.

open book

Inspired by Success

Our model draws inspiration from the Great Questions Community Seminar at Austin Community College, a beacon of insightful dialogue and shared learning. We have materials for Community Seminars on Plato’s Apology, Sophocles’ Antigone and Dr. King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, The Hebrew Bible and Quran, The Popol Vuh and Rig Veda, Borderlands by Gloria Anzaldúa and James Baldwin’s Down at The Cross, including discussion prompts and organizational strategies to support productive discussion among strangers, which we are happy to share with prospective faculty organizers. Please reach out if you are interested in exploring this.

We encourage you to propose your own series of seminars, tailoring them to your institution’s unique needs and interests.

Your Support System

To make your Community Seminars a success, TGQF is here to offer support. Faculty organizers leading at least three seminars at their institution can receive an $800 stipend. Plus, we’ll reimburse you for pre-cleared food and beverage expenses incurred during the sessions you organize. We’re committed to ensuring your seminars thrive.

eligibility

This opportunity is available to current community college faculty members who teach general education/core curriculum courses at accredited US institutions.

Deadlines

We will accept proposals for Community Seminar support on a rolling basis. 

Ready-Made Resources with guiding questions

Embarking on this journey is made easier with our ready-made materials for seminars featuring Plato’s Apology, Sophocles’ Antigone, Dr. King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, The Hebrew Bible and Quran, The Popol Vuh and Rig Veda, Borderlands by Gloria Anzaldúa and James Baldwin’s Down at The Cross. These materials include discussion prompts and organizational strategies, designed to facilitate productive discussions among participants who may be strangers at the start.

ready-made materials for seminars featuring

Why is this text Transformative?

NEEDS discription

Plato’s Apology

Plato

Why is this text Transformative?

In addition to its transformative impact on the civil rights movement, King’s speech also grapples with a timeless human question: is it just to disobey an unjust law? How do you overcome and end oppression? What in fact is the difference between a just and an unjust law? Is it wrong to fight for what is right if you know it will lead to violence?

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Why is this text Transformative?

Antigone confronts the audience with the questions- is what is legal always what is just? Creon’s law denies Polyneices a basic burial rite. It is illegal to break this law, but Antigone makes the case that Creon has no right to make this law since is flies in the face of the will of the gods. She refuses to obey an unjust law...

Sophocles

Organizing Questions

What Is Beauty? What do I find to be beautiful, why do I find those things to be beautiful and how do/can/should I create beauty in the world?
 
What Is Love? Whom do I love, and how do I know? How do I know if I am loved?

Join the Conversation

If you’re interested in taking the lead and inspiring meaningful discussions at your institution, reach out to our Executive Director, Ted Hadzi-Antich Jr., at ted@tgqf.org. Simply indicate “Community Seminar Inquiry” in the subject line, and Ted will guide you through the process.