NEH Enduring Questions Course on Happiness

FAIN: AQ-248180-16

University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire (Eau Claire, WI 54701-4811)
Matthew P. Meyer (Project Director: September 2015 to November 2019)
Kristin P. Schaupp (Co Project Director: June 2016 to November 2019)

The development and teaching of a new course for first- and second-year college students on the topic of happiness.

“What is happiness?” The question of happiness is not a modern one, but a perennial one. It is not a Western question, but a universal one. This course will use sustained primary source readings from ancient and modern philosophy; religious texts from Christian, Islamic, Buddhist, and Confucian traditions; research from positive psychology; and sociological studies on happiness to explore this question. Being an enduring question, we do not hope to arrive at an answer to the question. But we will demand thoughtful engagement through extensive reading and “scaffold” writing assignments that ask the student to re-think the central question at different points of intellectual development throughout the semester. This new course will explore this question with an intellectually pluralistic account, demanding that students engage with the humanities while being able to apply what they learn to their own lives. We are sure this course will reinvigorate students’ interest in the humanities.

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