Professor: Barbara Mossberg

4 credits

“Only connect”—E.M. Forster

Poetry, philosophy, and science merge, converge, blur, and blend in this study of genius that rocked—and still rocks—our world. Bursting and bending disciplines, joyously defying definitions of field--Einstein the scientist played the violin, urged people to study poetry and wrote poetry himself; Emerson the poet urged people to study science and history-- Emerson and Einstein are epic iconic minds and legends defining their two centuries—and ours. 
Emerson said, “To be great is to be misunderstood.” Yet despite the seeming inpenetrabilities of e=mc2 and “The American Scholar,” lectures, journals, and essays considered “genius,” Emerson and Einstein were celebrities, popular, and famous as public intellectuals who were understood more than not. Among the world’s most quotable—and quoted--people, it is as writers in the public realm and popular culture that they became movers and shakers; it is as metaphor-makers that they became change agents. Their metaphoric imaginations challenged and changed science and social sciences in how we think about our world and what “matters,” from transformative emergent complexity and chaos theories to civil and human rights and environmental policies.
Humanities advocates, teachers and preachers shaping 19th and 20th century thought, respectively, Emerson’s and Einstein’s writings continue in our own century as “news,” often headlines.  Spawning continuous revolutions in science, literature, and cultural understanding, these formative texts are among the most influential ever to have been published. 

NATURE OF COURSEWORK: AN INQUIRY INTO EFFECTIVE WRITING
Asking what makes their writing so powerful, we focus on Emerson and Einstein in their public authorial roles. We will investigate these great minds’ own learning and development as writers. What did they come to believe and practice as intellectual leaders? How and why did they use their “authority” as peace activists for human rights? How do they impact our conception of what there is to teach about our world and how it should be taught? We will examine the paradox that such seemingly difficult thinkers express the power of knowledge in ways that seek a common world view, literally and morally, in terms of conscience, courage, empathy, kindness, and goodness. Feisty iconoclasts, Emerson and Einstein’s lives and writings inspire ways to see our world with imagination and insight as “miracle” worthy of excitement, awe, and wonder, and a rousing social critique to foster better behavior to one another and our earth.
 

CLASS STRUCTURE: COLLOQUIUM
The format of our class structure as a Clark Honors College colloquium is based on the ancient concept of colloquiumitself: col—as in colleague, collaborate; loqui—to speak. We will gather as a real-world scholarly learning community of colleagues and collaborators, sharing and building knowledge, speaking to each other, and engaging with the spoken and written words of people around the world and over time. We will model the very meaning of genius: the synthesis of I, and you, and us.