Hermeneutics Seminar Summer 2025 - Program Requirements
Hermeneutics Seminar Summer 2025 - Program Requirements
August 4-8, 2025
August 4-8, 2025
Many of the instructors have committed to attend all or most of the class sessions and office hours, even when they are not the class instructor themselves. All of the instructors have committed to participating in office hours on the day they teach.
1. The only readings required in advance of the seminar are the readings for the first class. Depending on their other commitments during the seminar week, students may want to read ahead before the seminar begins. Classes will engage in close discussion of the readings, which can often be dense.
 2. Class attendance is mandatory, with only one excused class absence permitted during the week for those seeking to receive a course certificate.
3. The class will proceed by short instructor presentations but mainly by class discussion. Active class participation is required. (If a student is not a native English speaker, the classes provide an opportunity to practice English in a low-key environment.)
4. In advance of the final class session, on Friday afternoon, students will submit a 2-page abstract (approximately 500 words) for a proposed longer paper. (The abstract could subsequently be submitted as a proposal for various conferences, such as the Society for Ricoeur Studies conference, the North American Society for Philosophical Hermeneutics, or the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy.) The session will discuss the abstracts.
5. Instructors will review the submitted abstracts and offer written feedback (without a quantitative grade). If a submission is not of minimal quality, the student will be given the opportunity to rework the abstract and resubmit it for new evaluation.
6. Successful completion of the course will lead to the awarding of a certificate.