Jacobson Promotes Humanities, Philosophy Across Generations
Kirsten Jacobson, an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Maine, is connecting her students with members of the community in efforts to promote the humanities among residents of various ages.
In 2009, Jacobson created the service-learning program Philosophy Across the Ages to supplement her teaching while serving the public. The outreach program brings UMaine undergraduates together with high school students and retirement community members through discussions of philosophy texts.
Program participants join voluntarily and share a “desire to discuss serious questions of philosophy and examine how they are relevant to everyday life,” Jacobson says.
The project gives Jacobson’s students the opportunity to lead a class discussion, connects local high school students with a university experience, and engages retirement community members to engaging discussions with younger members of their community, Jacobson says.
In the 2013–2014 academic year, 10 UMaine undergraduate students participated in the program, visiting Orono High School and Dirigo Pines, a retirement community in Orono. So far in the 2014–2015 academic year, seven UMaine undergraduate students and 15 Orono High School students have participated, according to Jacobson.
On Jan. 24, undergraduate and high school members of Philosophy Across the Ages will join Jacobson at the Bangor Public Library to host a “Philosophy Tea” as part of the University of Maine Humanities Center’s third annual Downtown Bangor Public Humanities Day. The gathering will involve a discussion of a selection from Edith Cobb’s “The Ecology of Imagination in Childhood.”
Jacobson also is working to create a University of Maine–Orono High School Humanities Collaboration to find creative ways to bring together faculty and students at UMaine and the high school with community members around shared interests in the humanities, she says.
“We envision this project to have a number of stages, and are aiming to establish some form of permanent programing connecting our two campuses and the surrounding community through the humanities,” Jacobson says, adding she hopes the relationship will produce humanities-based collaborative events such as co-taught seminars, workshops and presentations.