Knowledge for Freedom alumni are invited each summer to participate in fellowship programs to further explore major questions in political philosophy. Our most recent fellows’ essays are presented below in an anthology of student voices. These essays are the works of young scholars, and as such, reflect craftsmanship and ideas still in progress, and are written in the spirit of open inquiry.
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Teagle Humanities Fellowship
Zifei Zhao reads James Baldwin and Cathy Park Hong to explore the problem of elite college admissions, and argues that in order to achieve real equality of access and opportunity, we must radically reform our system of higher education.
Courtney Huang reads Hannah Arendt and Nella Larsen to discuss the problem of censorship in schools and the dangers of not thinking for oneself.
Teagle Humanities Fellowship
Mike Guillen reads Sophocles and Alexis de Tocqueville in order to explore challenges facing American democracy, and shows us how we can prevent the tyranny of the majority from creating and perpetuating systems of social inequality and political polarization.
Teagle Humanities Fellowship
Tylin Khalil Dyer reads Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and W. E. B. Du Bois to examine his preconceptions about African American history and shows how closely reading the works of important figures from the past can give us a wider understanding of their ideas, a deeper admiration of their legacy, and a renewed appreciation of their continuing relevance to our own
Teagle Humanities Fellowship
Alice Duch reads novels by Patrick Süskind and Albert Camus to argue that the capacity for empathy is essential to our humanity.
Teagle Humanities Fellowship
Anny Chen reads Virginia Woolf and James Baldwin to discuss the necessity of education and civic participation in our era of political polarization.
Teagle Humanities Fellowship
David Chen Ma reads W. E. B. Du Bois and Cathy Park Hong to discuss his own experience of “double consciousness” and the important role that education can play in achieving liberation, self-realization, and community.
Teagle Humanities Fellowship
Jamie Budhram reads W. E. B. Du Bois and Virginia Woolf and reflects on identity, society, history, culture, and the immigrant experience in America.
Teagle Humanities Fellowship
Giancarlo Gallicchio explores the question of today’s “culture wars” by reading how Sigmund Freud and Clifford Geertz define “culture” in the first place.
Teagle Humanities Fellowship
In this essay, Aleena reads Toni Morrison and Ta-Nehisi Coates to better understand the origins of violence in the Black community, and to see how these writers might present us with solutions.