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Humanities in Action
The Humanities and Citizenship The new Slattery Center has laid out nine themes to ensure the University community can explore the possibilities of the humanities.
The Slattery Center for Humanities opens up a new avenue for the exchange of ideas on campus. With renovations underway, an old Victorian mansion on campus is becoming a new center for intellectual exchange at Scranton. The building is home to the Gail and Francis Slattery Center for Humanities, which launched the Humanities in Action Lecture Series in the fall.
University President Scott R. Pilarz, S.J., announced plans for the Center at his inauguration in 2018, reminding the community that the University’s Jesuit order developed the curriculum based on a belief in the power of the humanities for all students. “How do we go about equipping our students to live lives that are sources for hope?” asked Fr. Pilarz at his inauguration. “At Scranton, the humanities and the liberal arts are the heart of the matter and must always remain so.” Leading the Center’s efforts, and working to fulfill the vision of Fr. Pilarz, and Gail and Francis Slattery, is its executive director, Gregory Jordan, J.D. The writer, teacher and film producer, who joined the University in the fall and has since been collaborating with faculty members and deans across campus to infuse the humanities into courses and programs, is over30
THE SCRANTON JOURN A L
seeing construction, developing programs and establishing short- and long-term goals for the Center. “Our president and our provost, our board and our donors are doubling down on the humanities at the same time many universities are closing shop on them. We intend the Slattery Center to be not some high tower endeavor, but a vital venue that will trade in the gritty stuff of personal and professional aspiration,” said Jordan in his opening remarks at the launch of the Humanities in Action Lecture Series. The Center, named after the parents of benefactor and current University Trustee James M. Slattery ’86 and his wife, Betsy, will serve as a national model for humanities in action. “It struck Betsy and me that places like Scranton are special because they are Jesuit and, as such, the humanities need to be lived and promoted and not merely viewed as a checkbox on a curriculum. Because, in reality, as a working-class undergrad, my experience in these classes opened up ideas, worlds and possibilities to me that I had not before imagined,” said James Slattery at the dedication of the Center in 2019.
