The Faulkner D.Litt is now a SACS accredited PhD!

How old is that compared to George Blanda?

 

I wonder how this will be viewed in the history community.....

 

The dissertation seems to be modeled more after the British system than the American system. I guess?

 

And how is that?

 

I look favorably upon it, lustfully even.

 

This Ph.d. and the M.Litt degree at Faulkner look very very very interesting. Given how most curricula are so ...er...watered down, a course of study that places a focus entirely on the classics and the canon of western European culture is deeply refreshing. So much academe is besotted with post-modernism, that I cannot help but wonder if christian universities will serve the same purpose as their monastic forebears in keeping the western tradition alive in a sea of barbarism.

 

John Bear answers all Ted Heiks' questions

Ted: "And which Faulkner is Faulkner U named for?"
From his obituary:
Jimmy Faulkner dies at 92 Baldwin County, state loses local political powerhouse
Saturday, August 23, 2008
By Virginia Bridges, staff reporter
James Herman Faulkner Sr., a former mayor, state senator, two-time candidate for governor and newspaper publisher, died Friday after a long illness. He was 92.

Jimmy Faulkner wielded political power in the days of George Wallace, James "Big Jim" Folsom and others. He was the namesake of Faulkner State Community College, Faulkner University and other institutions. In more recent years, Faulkner served as "consultant" to Volkert and Associates Inc., led industrial development efforts in Baldwin County and was involved in other civic positions. Friends and family described Faulkner as an engaging, patriotic and warm man who built on a meager beginning to become a Baldwin County political powerhouse whose actions and influences have left a bold and unmistakable mark locally and across the state.

Ted: "How old is that compared to George Blanda?"
Blanda played his last game at 48 (and kicked a 41-yarder). But that's nothing compared to Gordon Tovani, about whom I wrote a feature when I was a sports writer for a California daily. At 50, on Independence day, on a practice field, he kicked 1,111 field goals, including some longer than 70 yards. Barefoot! That got him a tryout with the Raiders, but he wasn't as successful with a ton of linemen racing toward him.

 

It looks like it's based primarily on reading and reviewing books (literature), which is culminated in a dissertation.

Degree Plan « The Great Books Honors College

 

And how is this "modeled more after the British system than the American system"?

 

Yeah, I'm not seeing that, either.

The British doctoral thesis is identical to the American one, except in one regard. In Ph.D. (thesis-only, or "big book") programs, the thesis is a lot longer. But the same expectations for content exist: literature review, research methods, presentation of findings, discussion, conclusions. But the "big book" thesis usually involves a deeper run at the literature (for a theoretical foundation of the study) and a bigger research project (and ensuing write-up). "Little book": 50K words. "Big book": 80-100K words.

Nothing, however, that would invoke thoughts of "great books" curricula.

 

Faulkner University is a Church of Christ supported and run university. In 1993, all members of the Birmingham, Alabama campus who were not members of a Church of Christ were fired. I had been there for five years but that matter not - I am Cumberland Presbyterian, so I had to go. The question is not only what books will be allowed but the how diverse will the faculty members be?

 

Great Books

i would find out first whether it excludes "great books" that do not conform to their interpretation of the Bible. Could be a slim list - - - especially for anything written after the Middle Ages and by non-Westerners.

 

You can read the descriptions of their MLitt courses to get an idea of the kind of works studied:

Faulkner University - Master of Letters Course Descriptions

 

The "Great Books" approach is often associated with Christian education, but this isn't always the case. In fact, the oldest, most selective, and best-known "Great Books" school is St. John's College (in MD and NM) -- and St. John's is completely secular, despite the religious-sounding name. I think the second-oldest Great Books school is Shimer College (in IL), which is also secular.

 

It would seem to me that this is a good option for folks who want a totally DL PhD in several fields. If you don't like it, don't apply. If you don't like the Christian perspective, then look elsewhere. If the viewpoint and approach fits what you are looking for, then go for it.

The more DL options, the better.

 

Perhaps it means this: "STRONG CHRISTIAN COMMITMENT The belief that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant word of God is the founding principle of Faulkner University. Every subject is taught from a Christian perspective. Faulkner offers an exceptional academic education with the underlying foundation of the Christian worldview."

Quote from Faulkner University - Academics

In a very broad sense there may be a "Christian worldview," but like many other things there is much diversion once you start dealing with the particulars. Holding to such a worldview may be constraining for those who prefer more academic freedom.

- lifelonglearner

 

This is the coolest answer I've read in a while. Very nice!

 

Firing the western literary canon

CalDog: "In fact, the oldest, most selective, and best-known "Great Books" school is St. John's College (in MD and NM)"

John: Perhaps the oldest surviving one. It all began at Columbia in 1919, and when founder John Erskine moved to the U of Chicago a few years later, it moved there too. St. Johns came along in 1937.

 

Here's a splendid, if unsettling, great books story

Marina and I used to hang out with Mortimer Adler at Encyclopaedia Britannica in Chicago in the 60s. Adler was very pleased that EB had published his "Great Books of the Western World" series, but annoyed that it seemed to require the skills of high pressure door-to-door salespeople to sell it.

He told the story of the time that EB had produced dozens of display sets of the Great Books, with leather bindings but all blank pages, to use at conventions, book shows, etc., to show how lovely they looked in the included mahogany bookcase.

Due to a horrendous error, ten of these bound sets of all-blank page books were sent out to people who had bought the complete set (for about $400). Four were never returned.

 

Columbia and Chicago still have "core curricula" that are oriented towards Western Civilization, and these reflect the "Great Books" tradition established by Erskine. But outside of the core, Columbia and Chicago students use conventional textbooks, and focus their studies in conventional majors offered by conventional academic departments. These are not "Great Books" schools today.

A "Great Books" school not only lacks textbooks, it lacks different majors and different departments. At St. John's, everybody -- regardless of their different interests or talents -- takes the same classes, reads the same books, and graduates with the same general, non-specialized degree in "Liberal Arts". They don't even have different "concentrations".

Which may explain why the Great Books approach -- while certainly cool in theory -- isn't actually very popular in practice. After 4 years of study at a conventional school, your bachelor's degree will normally document some degree of knowledge and ability in a specific field, like accounting or English or history or biology or engineering. You might even have a double-major in two fields. But after 4 years reading books at St. John's, you will have a bachelor's degree in ... well, nothing specific. For most people, that may not be the ideal undergraduate-level credential.

The two St. John's campuses combined enroll fewer than 1,000 undergraduates. Other "Great Books" schools are even smaller. Seems like there can't be more than 2,000 - 3,000 undergraduates nationwide that are actually pursuing full "Great Books" degrees.