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Great Works Program

The Great Works Program promotes lifelong learning and critical thinking through the study of great works in philosophy, politics, literature, sciences, religion, and fine arts.

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The Great Works Program enables students to take part in a conversation with stimulating thinkers across cultures and through the ages. Reading original texts, often in translation, students directly encounter works of philosophy, literature, history, theology, fine art, and science. Each text introduces students to fundamental alternatives to how we think and how we live. By enabling us to envision and think through these alternatives, the Great Works program provides an essential component of a truly liberal education. The program offers a Minor in Great Works as well as two separate tracks for obtaining a Certificate in Great Works.

For more information about Great Works courses, the Minor in Great Works, the Great Works Academic Certificate, or the Great Works Book Club, contact mark.lutz@unlv.edu

Resources

"The Great Works program was an extraordinary opportunity to expand my scholarly and intellectual scope beyond what is generally offered at the undergraduate level. The program is designed to enhance the intellectual and analytical skills of young scholars who have a thirst for knowledge. By exploring the works of some of the greatest minds in the humanities, I was able to both expand my interests as well as enhance and further develop existing interests. To this end, the Great Works program was a unique intellectual experience."

Nerses Kopalyan, PhD, Assistant Professor-in-Residence, Department of Political Science, UNLV

Goals of the Program

  1. To improve students’ ability to read and analyze carefully. The challenge of great works summons careful attention and thoughtful critique because such works are impossible to categorize easily. Students will leave the program as better critical thinkers in all aspects of their lives.
  2. To promote students’ facility with the written word. Most classes within the program have a writing component that involves the development of good skills in research and analysis. In addition, exposure to excellent writing and thought helps to promote better writing. Careful reading is a prerequisite of good writing.
  3. To engage students in a conversation on fundamental questions of human life. Works on the list for the program treat questions of what it means to be human, such as: What is the structure of the universe? What is human nature? What is love? What is justice, and what does it require of us? Even if students do not find answers to those questions and learn only how to ask the questions more cogently, they will have accomplished a great deal.
  4. To enrich students’ university experience and encourage lifelong learning. Reading primary texts allows students to experience more continuity across subjects. This experience encourages a lifelong curiosity–an eagerness and an ability to continue learning independently after college.
  5. To provide students with a superior background for graduate school. Graduate programs want students who have knowledge of key primary texts in areas such as philosophy, literature, and the sciences. Those texts are the foundation of all disciplines in the liberal arts.
  6. To prepare students better for today’s careers. Specific skills learned in college often become less useful within several years of graduation, and people may change jobs or professions several times in the course of their lives. The program will help students to develop an intellectual strength that will allow them to maintain a variety of jobs more successfully.
  7. To reward students’ achievements with scholarships and other honors. Students who excel in the program should be more competitive for national scholarships and honors.
  8. To encourage integration of students’ academic and social activities. Activities such as a lecture series and a reading group will encourage shared experiences in learning.

Support

Donations to the Great Works Program can make a big difference in the lives of students. Contributions can support bringing guest lecturers to campus to talk with students about core texts and ideas. They can pay for books for students in the Great Works Book Club. Larger donations may be put in an endowment fund, where they may be used to pay for annual expenses.

To donate, choose “view all giving opportunities” and select the Great Works Program under “programs and centers.”

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Events

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"When it comes to literature and philosophy certificate programs there are loads of programs that provide an informative summary of the classics, but the Great Works Academic Certificate (GWAC) program allows you to take part in a conversation with some of the greatest thinkers in politics, philosophy and literature. The program enabled me, coached me and gave me the confidence to share my analysis and opinion on some of the greatest moral and political questions of our time. GWAC not only enhanced my coursework at University of Nevada, but years later conversations on works like The Merchant of Venice and its themes of justice and mercy inform my decision making even today."

Amanda Zeidan, Foreign Service Officer, US Department of State