| European College of Liberal Arts | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1999 |
| Type | private |
| Dean | Peter Hajnal, Thomas Nørgaard |
| Academic staff | 19 |
| Students | ca. 60 |
| Location | Berlin, Germany |
| Campus | Pankow-Niederschönhausen |
| Website | www.ecla.de |
The European College of Liberal Arts (ECLA) is a private, non-profit institution of higher education in Berlin, Germany. It was founded as a non-profit association in 1999 under the leadership of Stephan Gutzeit. The founding dean was Erika Anita Kiss. Since 2003, Peter Hajnal and Thomas Norgaard have been responsible for the curriculum. The first programme to be introduced was the six-week International Summer University, which is still offered annually alongside two one-year programmes: the Academy Year and the Project Year. ECLA's four-year Bachelor of Arts Programme in Value Studies was launched in October 2009. Unlike most institutions of higher education, ECLA is a college without departments and its present curriculum is dedicated to the integrated study of values. The college is, according to Martha Nussbaum, one of the rare educational institutions in Europe that makes the liberal arts idea into reality.[1] Students and faculty come from all over the world and the language of instruction is English.
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In October 2009 a new 4-year programme was introduced at the European College of Liberal Arts leading to the Bachelor of Arts degree. Students completing the programme receive a B.A. in Value Studies and concentrate in two of the following three areas: Art and Aesthetics, Ethics and Political Theory, Literature and Rhetoric. It is the first degree programme structured around the concept of value.[2]
ECLA's first one-year programme was introduced in 2002, and continues today in a developed version as the Academy Year Programme. The main structural components of the curriculum are core courses and electives. Students may also study languages for extra credit if time permits. In 2009-10 the core courses are dedicated to Greek Thought and Literature on Education, Forms of Love: Eros, Agape and Philia, and The Values of the Florentine Renaissance.[3] Seminars are usually composed of five to twelve students.
Another one-year programme, introduced in 2003, continues today as the Project Year Programme. Students spend half their time in core courses, and divide the rest between electives and a year-long individual project after which the programme is named. Supervised by one or two faculty members with relevant expertise, the work culminates with a 25-page essay and an oral presentation of the project to the rest of the school. In 2009-10 the topic of the PY core course is The Idea and Ideal of Objectivity. Usually PY students have 3–5 years of relevant academic experience when they join the programme.[4]
The theme for the 2011 ISU is "Prussia - Philosophy, Rebellion and the State".
Catherine Toal is the director of the 2011 ISU. Theodor Paleologu was director of the ISU between 2003 and 2006. David Durst, Professor of Philosophy at the American University in Bulgaria, was the ISU director from 2007 to 2009.
Besides the main academic programmes, ECLA organises and hosts the State of the World Week each year. The programme functions as a forum for inquiry into current affairs, and it has received a UNESCO award as an event for education in sustainable development.[5] The next State of the World Week will take place 7–11 February 2011 under the title What Shall We Eat?, focusing on the issues related to food production, distribution and consumption. Previous State of the World Week topics included The Translator (2010), Politics of Cultural Ownership (2009), Water Management (2008),[6] Social entrepreneurship (2007),[7] New Forms of War: Challenges as the Nation State Declines (2006), EU Enlargement: Cultural Issues and Implications (2005), Political Developments in the Middle East and Central Asia (2003).
ECLA brings together scholars and teachers from all disciplines and backgrounds who can contribute to the discussion of values. The main focus is on the humanities, especially philosophy, literature, political theory and art history, but numerous disciplines and fields of study are involved: biology, economics, film theory, gender studies, history, mathematics, musicology, sociology, theology etc. Faculty members are selected on the basis of excellent academic credentials and for their ability to engage in joint work on value problems that defy departmental comfort zones.[8]
In addition to faculty members and postdoctoral fellows ECLA students are taught by a series of guest teachers, who deliver lectures and participate in seminars throughout the academic year.
Past guest teachers include Frank Fehrenbach (Harvard), Horst Bredekamp (Humboldt), Terrell Carver (Bristol), Lynn Catterson (Columbia), David Colander (Middlebury), Lorraine Daston (Max Planck Institute, Berlin), Hans Fink (Århus), Rivka Galchen (author of Atmospheric Disturbances), Edith Hall, Stephen Halliwell (St Andrews), Stephen Houlgate (Warwick), Ira Katznelson (Columbia), Sabina Lovibond (Oxford), Stephen Maurer (Swarthmore), Heinrich Meier (Munich), Glen Most (Chicago), Stephen Mulhall (Oxford), Stephanie Nelson (Boston), Susan Neiman (Einstein Forum, Berlin), Anthony Price(Birkbeck), Christoff Rapp (Humboldt), Martin Ruehl (Cambridge), Roger Scruton (Oxford and Washington) and many others.
In addition, external academics come to teach at ECLA during its Summer University programme.
ECLA cooperates with the following institutions of higher education: Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, USA), Bennington College (Bennington, VT, USA), Bucerius Law School (Hamburg, Germany) and Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, PA, USA).
In February 2011 ECLA was awarded state recognition as a private university by the Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Forschung des Landes Berlin (Berlin Senate Administration of Education, Science and Research). With it ECLA received the right to grant a BA degree in Value Studies.[9][10] Students, who are not eligible to pursue a German degree will have the possibility to receive a U.S. BA degree from Bennington College in Vermont, a Liberal Arts College accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.
ECLA is a residential college. ECLA's campus is located in the northern part of Berlin, in the residential area called Pankow-Niederschönhausen. Most buildings were designed in 1966 by Eckart Schmidt and built starting 1972,[11] and formerly belonged to the embassies of several countries in GDR, among others Egypt, Cuba[12] and Nigeria.[13] Currently the expansion and renovation works are planned for ECLA's campus with New York-based firm Deborah Berke & Partners Architects in charge of the process.[14]