What role should America play in a new, post-Sept. 11 curriculum?

Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 has turned some heads in publicly posing this question as the Faculty of Arts and Sciences gears up for its most ambitious undergraduate curricular review since the 1970s.

Lewis’ musings come early—Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby has not yet sent the letter to faculty in which he will announce the start of the review—and the College dean’s office, charged with coordinating undergraduate student life, has traditionally been silent on most academic issues.

While Kirby and University President Lawrence H. Summers have stated their desire to bolster the College’s international ties by increasing study abroad opportunities and expanding international studies, Lewis has raised questions about the status of America and Western civilization in the undergraduate curriculum.

Kenan Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield ’53 says Lewis’ point—raised in a Crimson op-ed on Sept. 11 and in a Morning Prayers speech last Monday—is on target.

“If multiculturalism says all cultures are equal, that idea took a heavy blow when the World Trade towers came down,” Mansfield says.

Others say Sept. 11 underscores the need to look past America.

“It seems to me the lessons of 9/11 are that Harvard is an international university and we need to focus on the cultures of the rest of the world,” says Pippa Norris, a lecturer on government.

Yet other faculty members and administrators say they do not see a conflict between Lewis’ remarks and a more international vision for the College.

“Any good university is going to ask these questions,” says Professor of Psychology Marc D. Hauser, who speculates that adding a class on America’s changing role in the world “is one of the many changes that could occur.”

Lewis says his questions are open-ended and he does not have any concrete proposals in mind. He declined to elaborate on his views for this story, saying he prefers to let his op-ed and speech stand for themselves.

Protecting ‘Free Society’

In an opinion piece published in The Crimson on Sept. 11, 2002, Lewis first asked the provocative question: “Is Harvard an American or a global university?”

“Since Sept. 11, there has been an unprecedented recollection of this country’s founding principles of freedom and equality,” Lewis wrote. “How will the Harvard Faculty balance the reality that the U.S. is one nation among many in an ever smaller and more interconnected world, with a recognition that the particular ‘free society’ in which Harvard exists is founded on ideals which Americans continue to be proud to defend and preserve?”

Lewis touched on the same themes in a speech last Monday at Memorial Church’s Morning Prayers.