The Liberal Bookshelf:

Professor Brian Russell Graham

After launching his course on Epistemic Liberalism, Professor Graham is preparing four

other live courses over the next few months. These courses are part of our series called The

Liberal Bookshelf.

To find out more about these courses and be the first to hear register for limited live spots, sign up for our newsletter.

The University Unbound

This course is focused upon the cult of safetyism which has taken hold on university campuses in the United States and other parts of the English-speaking world. Participants will read a selection of chapters from Haidt and Lukianoff’s The Coddling of the American Mind. On what grounds might we mount a defense of the idea of a university as a place where risks, intellectual emotional and even spiritual, are taken? To what extent do Haidt and Lukianoff have the answers?

Humanist Thinkers 

One of the consequences of the surge in popularity of postmodern thinkers is that we have forgotten about the remarkable humanist thinkers of the twentieth century. This course provides you with an opportunity to (re)discover those thinkers. Reading chapters from William Calin’s remarkable Twentieth-Century Humanist Critics, participants on this course will be introduced to figures ranging from Erich Auerbach and C.S. Lewis to Northrop Frye and Leo Spitzer. 

Close Reading

During the period of the postmodern ascendancy, the skill of ‘close reading’ has been somewhat forgotten. The course provides participants with the chance to (re)visit the theorists of this essential skill. Each week we will read a chapter of Engagements with Close Reading by Annette Federico. Participants will learn about how New Criticism, reader-response theory and ethical criticism all foster the ability to focus and read with care.

The Knowledge Industry

How does knowledge come into the world? What sorts of tests are ideas subjected to? What does it mean for an idea to stand the test of time? What is truth? No one has addressed these questions in recent times with greater verve and persuasiveness than Jonathan Rauch. On this course we will read chapters from Rauch’s most recent publication on this subject: The Constitution of Knowledge.