GREAT BOOKS PROGRAM FACULTY
The authors of the Great Books constitute the permanent faculty of the Program - through their writings they are our primary teachers. Our moderators (following, below) guide students to and through them, the geniuses of Western civilization.
The
Authors of the Great Books |
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Dr.
Mortimer J. Adler  |
It would be ungracious of us to begin our faculty list with anyone other than the late Mortimer J. Adler, who certainly deserves the credit for being the exemplar for our faculty members and moderators, though he did not moderate in it before his death in 2001. His life-long pursuit and promotion of academic excellence and educational reform - known as the Great Books Movement - is the immediate intellectual precursor of this program. It was his insight into how to restore American education at the secondary and college levels that inspired and directed the formulation and design of this program in 2000, as well as his personal encouragement of the idea of this program. We consider the recent American Council on Education's recommendations for college credit for this program to be another recognition of Dr. Adler's educational perspicacity. |
Max Weismann, Our Chairman |
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Professor Max Weismann is President, Director and Co-Founder (with Mortimer Adler) of the Center for Study of the Great Ideas. Professor Weismann is the author of a popular book entitled How to Think about the Great Ideas: From the Great Books of Western Civilization. In addition, he publishes and edits the journals Philosophy Is Everybody's Business and The Great Ideas Online. Professor Weismann has been a moderator of international Great Books seminars and a lifelong member of the Great Books Foundation. He has been teaching and promoting adult liberal education through the reading and discussion of the Great Books of Western Civilization for more than 40 years. |
Patrick S. J. Carmack - President |
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After earning his Juris Doctorate, Pat completed numerous additional courses in psychology and philosophy. A former Administrative Law Judge at the Oklahoma State Corporation Commission, member of the U.S. Supreme Court Bar, former CEO of an independent petroleum exploration and production company, founder and former Chairman of the International Caspian Horse Society, and President of a non-profit educational foundation, Pat lives with his wife Elisabeth and their five homeschooled children on Eagle Mountain overlooking Colorado Springs. Pat participated in Dr. Mortimer J. Adler's last several Socratic discussion groups in Maryland and California in 1999 and 2000, respectively and moderated the first live-audio Socratic groups online (2000 AD) and numerous online groups since, as well as at Great Books evening programs in Seattle. He has been a speaker on educational topics at various conferences in the US and Europe. |
Curtis Hancock, Ph.D. Philosophy |
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Curtis Hancock, Ph.D. Philosophy, holds the Joseph M. Freeman Chair of Philosophy at Rockhurst College; is Coordinator of and lecturer in the Great Books Program, "Return to the Classics"; Chair of the Department of Philosophy (1991-94); has served as President of both the American Maritain Association and The Gilson Society for the Advancement of Christian Philosophy; has authored four books of philosophy; twenty-two published philosophical articles and co-authored two books. Dr. Hancock is a Director of The Great Books Academy. |
James Taylor, Ph.D. Philosophy of Education, Kansas University |
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Jim is currently Assistant Professor of Education, University of Tulsa. He previously served as Chairman of the Teacher Education Program at Hillsdale College, Michigan. He has taught at several private schools on both the secondary (high school) and college levels. He is a student of the renowned Integrated Humanities Program (in the liberal arts) at Kansas University and is the author of the wonderful book Poetic Knowledge: The Recovery of Education. Jim also works with our high school great books students. |
Robert Alexander, Ph.D. |
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Literature and Politics, University of Dallas. Bob's doctorate is in literature and politics. He has taught at John Cabot University in Rome, Italy; the University of San Francisco, California; College of Notre Dame, California; Magdalen College, New Hampshire, where he often moderated Great Books discussion groups. He currently teaches at the University of Dallas and also works with our high school great books students. Though Bob no longer does online classes he and his lovely wife, Suzanne, wrote the majority of our Great Books Study Guides. |
Steve Bertucci, Director |
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Steve Bertucci is a Director of the Great Books Program and has probably moderated more Great Books discussion groups (literally thousands now) than any living human! He speaks at educational conferences throughout the country and in Europe and serves on the boards of nonprofit educational and arts organizations. Steve was one of the pioneers of live-audio online Socratic discussion groups. He lives with his family in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains in Washington State. He works with our students in 3rd grade through high school, and with our adult groups, as well. |
Elisabeth Carmack - Registrar |
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Elisabeth was homeschooled through high school; is a Board Certified
Naturopathic Doctor and earned a Ph.D. in Nutritional Science. In
June, 2002 she was awarded the Diploma (D.I. Hom.) of the British
Institute of Homeopathy , and is a Fellow of the British Institute
of Homeopathy. She lives with her husband and five homeschooled children
on Eagle Mountain overlooking Colorado Springs, Washington and supervises
our written grading, transcript and enrollment services. |
