News, Lectures & Events
It’s a Great Books Showcase!
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- Total eclipse; photography by Tim Christensen
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- Chrysochroa fulminans green; photography by Tim Christensen
Artist’s Statement
The middle of the scientific method is a series of logical steps used to discover truth. However, at its beginning stands the creativity of the human mind. Science cannot exist without the igniting spark of imagination and insight. Art is where we as a species develop intuition. It is where we practice holding different ideas in our mind simultaneously to create a riot of thoughts that have never existed. I began to hold art and science in my mind through deep dives into Great books of literature. For me science fiction is a place where big ideas can incubate. I continue to be a obsessive reader and I also now practice holding Art and Science in my mind with my photography. Visons of deep space and the microscopic details of an insect coexist as reminders of what we don’t see in our distracted world and how we might create sparks of imagination.
You Are the River: A Celebration of Literature & Art
Make a donation to Great Books at ECU at give.ecu.edu/greatbooks.
Congratulations to Great Books Graduates!
Please join the Great Books faculty as we congratulate our graduates!
Olivia Garman (Spring 2021) will pursue a graduate degree in English education with licensure at Radford University.
Harriet Carlton (Fall 2019) has been accepted into Duke University’s Master of Liberal Studies program.
Great Books Graduates Accept Graduate & Professional School Offers
The Great Books faculty commends three recent graduates on their admission & acceptance of placement in graduate & professional programs!
Harriet Carlton (Fall 2019) has accepted a seat at the Campbell University Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law.
Alison Moller (Spring 2019) has been offered a scholarship & seat at the Campbell University Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law, and is waiting to hear from other programs before making her decision.
Ben Tellis (Fall 2019) will be attending George Mason University for an Master of Arts in Philosophy.
Ed Wall receives ECU Faculty Book Award
Wall receives ECU Faculty Book Award, Nov. 13, 2019. ECU Photos.
On November 13, 2019, Associate Professor Ed Wall, a philosophy professor in the department of Philosophy & Religious Studies, received an ECU Faculty Book Award for the October 2018 publication of his first monograph, Foundation for a Natural Morality: A Deductive Approach for Defending and Developing a Moral Theory. The book is published by Lexington Books, the social sciences & humanities imprint of Rowan & Littlefield. Here’s what they say about it:
“Few philosophers attempt to establish that there is an evaluative and moral realm. They make these major assumptions without argument. This plays into the hands of moral nihilists and certain other moral skeptics. A major obstacle that prevents philosophers from developing such arguments is the long-standing view that one cannot derive an “ought” from an “is,” that is, one cannot begin with purely descriptive non-evaluative propositions and deduce an evaluative or moral proposition. In this book, Edmund Wall develops arguments for evaluative and moral principles. His deductive reasoning begins with certain purely descriptive and non-evaluative propositions concerning human nature, establishing a basic moral principle of human life and a basic moral principle of knowledge. By providing such deductive arguments for basic moral principles, Wall makes considerable progress in establishing a sure foundation for morality. He further develops his case by responding to a plethora of anticipated objections against his two arguments, and by delineating the advantages of his own moral approach over a number of influential moral theories and competing accounts of moral reasoning.”
English & Great Books Alumna Receives Sherrill Carlson Fellow
Glenesha Berryman, who earned a Bachelor of Arts in English with a second major in Great Books from ECU in spring 2019, has been awarded the Sherrill Carlson Fellow from the national Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi.While at ECU and as a member of the EC Scholars Program, Berryman studied abroad in Cuba and spent a summer studying at Columbia University as a Leadership Alliance Mellon Initiative Scholar. On campus, Berryman founded the university’s Black Read-In, an annual lecture and open mic series celebrating the Black literary tradition. She also started her own talk radio show—A Seat in the Booth, a weekly opportunity for artists and activists to debate current issues—on the campus station.
An active volunteer, Berryman spent a summer in Austin, Texas, as an AmeriCorps Summer Teaching Fellow, where she taught sixth grade English to low-income students. She has also taught English as a second language in local health clinics and migrant farm camps.
Berryman’s passion for Black feminist thought shaped her senior honors thesis, a collection of creative nonfiction essays and collages entitled “Coming of Rage—A Manifesto.” Berryman is pursuing a Ph.D. in American culture at the University of Michigan, where she will work on histories of race and technology.