Before class, professor Matt Dinan carries a can of WD-40 to his Holy Cross classroom and sprays the chairs that have been there since he was a great books student.
Now, almost 16 years after he was a student, Dinan is an associate professor at his alma mater and was appointed new director of the great books program. He is taking over the role from professor Andrew Moore.
“I’m excited to work with my colleagues to continue that process of keeping our curriculum very unique, challenging and open,” he said.
Dinan is an alumnus of the first graduating class of the great books program in 2006. During his undergrad at STU, the program used to be called great ideas and Moore was his proctor when he lived in Harrington Hall. Dinan met his wife at STU, who was also in the first cohort of people graduating from the great books program.
Dinan and Moore are the only two full-time faculty members of the great books program but work with several other part-time faculty. The program has a distinctive structure and teaching style, where multiple professors from other departments also teach within the program.
All the courses in the program are discussion or conversation-based. Courses always have a team of at least two professors who teach together.
“We have a real emphasis on intellectual community in our courses. So, it’s not the kind of situation where you’re an anonymous person,” he said.
Dinan said since there are only two full-time faculty members in the great books program, he’s always had input into the way things are run, so becoming the new director won’t fundamentally change the program.
There are a few program ideas that were put on hold due to the pandemic.
“We’re really excited to start working on when things are, fingers crossed, back to normal in the fall, which I think that there’s every reason to believe they will be,” he said.
Dinan applied for grants to do a book club about liberal arts education and said they are always looking to refresh the great books curriculum. In regular times, the program also invites speakers to campus, which Dinan said he’s excited to revive.
Moore was the director of the program for six years now and while most departments have several full-time faculty members who can express their interest in becoming the program director, great books only has two. He and Dinan chatted and decided it was time to pass on the role.
“[I’m] very excited … I think Matt will do a great job. He is an exceptional teacher and he’s a good researcher and he cares about all the right things,” said Moore. “I think that’s what matters the most, he has the right priorities. He’s very student-centred, so he will do a great job leading the program.”
