Polymathy may be defined as the productive pursuit of multiple endeavors, simultaneously or serially, across a lifetime. As such, polymathic breadth of interest across knowledge domains characterizes Nobel laureates in the sciences, literature, economics, and peace, though interest patterns vary between groups. Economics laureates, like science…

This is a unique and groundbreaking collection of questions and answers coming from higher education institutions on diverse fields and across a wide spectrum of countries and cultures. It creates routes for further innovation, collaboration amidst the Sciences (both Natural and Social) and the Humanities and the private and the public sectors of…

A National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant funded a study to establish an International Humanities Curriculum that would serve as a model of curricular internationalization upon which interested observers might draw for revision of their own curricula. This curriculum revision project introduced the study of texts, ideas, themes, and…

This eight-lesson unit introduces students to developments in Tokugawa, Japan, from 1630-1867. Students explore art, literature, and other primary sources to compile a picture of the stable, hierarchical society that the Tokugawa rulers sought to establish and maintain; students then draw on these sources to analyze social, economic, and cultural…

This curriculum unit focuses on the Meiji period (1868-1912), a pivotal period in Japanese and world history. Each lesson in this unit uses art, literature, primary sources, or a combination to help students understand Japan's emerging sense of nationhood within the context of the rapid change taking place during this important period. Lessons…

This unit covers the tumultuous period of 1894-1945 in modern Japanese history. The curriculum unit includes an assortment of Japanese arguments for and against government policies of expansion and war. The unit introduces a wide variety of Japanese materials, ranging from paintings to fiction to personal memoirs, that can enhance students'…