Special Lecture Series

Fine Arts and Humanities Nourish Intuition and Nurture the Human Spirit: Dr Carl Amrhein

Dr Carl Amrhein, Provost and Vice President Academics, University of Alberta, Canada, presented an eloquent discourse titled 'Thinking Globally, Developing Locally: General Education in Society through the Arts, Humanities and Sciences' at AKU's Special Lecture Series programme in November 2005.

Elaborating on the evolution, concept, characters and purpose of a university, Dr. Amrhein said he was reminded of the installation address given by his president, Dr. Indira Samarasekera, who said, “Creativity thrives in an intellectual climate of breadth. A university should be a place of great conversations between engineers and philosophers, biologists and historians, physicians and linguists. They should be presented with societal challenges and encouraged to seek solutions through discourse and debate.”

Citing the examples of the pioneering institutions such as ‘The Academy’ of Athens and Al-Azhar University of Cairo, as well as scholars John Cardinal Newman and Wilhelm Humboldt, Dr Amrhein advocated that, “A university should teach universal knowledge as an end in itself and provide students with an all-round humanist education.” He quoted Clark Kerr’s concept of ‘multiversity’, which supports an outward-expanding institution that touches the lives of all citizens and is far removed from the cloistered community of scholars.