Sunday, July 21, 2013

Some resources for Shimer College curricular history

Following up on the earlier post on curricular history, I thought it would be useful to collect some of the online resources for understanding Shimer's own curricular development from the 1940s to today.  Many of these resources have only recently become available, and hopefully more will become available in the future, so I'll try to keep this list updated from time to time.  

New resources may also become available soon as part of Stuart Patterson's upcoming course on "Why & What Should We Read?", which will touch on Shimer curricular history in the context of larger historical trends and conversations.

I'm always looking for new materials to add to the archive, so if by any chance you have resources that you'd like to share, please do get in touch. I can be reached at samueljhenderson@gmail.com.

1940s-1950s
1947-1948 catalog, the first catalog to present the "Shimer Plan", a four-year curriculum foreshadowing the full Great Books curriculum of later years (those so inclined can follow the clickpath from here through all the Shimer catalogs of the Academy period, 1896-1950).
1951-1952 catalog , the first catalog published within the "Great Books period" as usually understood

1960s "The Shimer Plan" (from 1960 student handbook):
"Shimer and the Humanities" (Hirschfield, 1965)
"Shimer and the Social Sciences" (Keohane Sr., 1965)

1970s 
Moon memo 
"Shimer Curriculum Under Review" (with perspectives by Moon, Beeson, and Sakurai)
November 1976 Symposium

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