NEH Enduring Questions Course on Ambition

FAIN: AQ-248195-16

Christopher Newport University (Newport News, VA 23606-2949)
Brent Cusher (Project Director: September 2015 to November 2019)

The development and teaching of a new undergraduate elective in the Leadership Studies curriculum on the nature of ambition.

This project seeks funding to develop a course at Christopher Newport University (Newport News, VA) called "The Promises and Perils of Ambition." The course would serve as an elective in the Leadership Studies curriculum and would be offered for the first time in Fall 2016. Through detailed study of both western and non-western texts in philosophy, literature, religious studies, and history, students will explore the following core questions in the humanities. What is the nature of ambition as a key component of human motivation? More specifically, in what ways can ambition lead human beings to do both great things and extraordinary evil?