Engage the classic texts and enduring ideas that have shaped cultures, societies, and ways of thinking across time and place.
Text & Traditions grounds students in the humanities through sustained engagement with foundational works of literature and political thought from antiquity to the Renaissance. Through close reading of poetry, drama, and philosophy, students explore how writers and thinkers—from Homer, Sappho, and Plato to St. Augustine, Petrarch, Shakespeare, and Machiavelli—grappled with enduring questions of power, ethics, and authority. Emphasizing careful analysis, discussion, and argumentation, the program develops critical reading, writing, and rhetorical skills while offering a shared intellectual experience that reveals how classic texts continue to shape modern cultural and political life.
