Pericles Lewis, who in his role as dean of Yale College guides the undergraduate academic and residential experience, will lead a course examining the many objectives of higher education, beyond the bestowing of degrees, as part of an annual Yale lecture series that is open to the public at no charge.
The 2026 DeVane Lectures course, "Purposes of College Education," is based on an undergraduate course Lewis taught in 2021 and 2022. The main text for the course is "The Republic," the Socratic dialogue written by Plato around 375 B.C. It will be read in conversation with other major works including the Bhagavad Gita and writings from Confucius, Martin Luther King Jr., and Virginia Woolf.
"'The Republic' is not only a book about justice, which is its ostensible main subject, but it's largely also a book about the philosophy of education," said Lewis, the Douglas Tracy Smith Professor of Comparative Literature and professor of English in Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. "How should we educate people, and especially educate people for leadership roles in society?"
Registration for the course, which will be offered in the fall, opens April 13.
Lewis was named dean of Yale College in 2022; one priority in that role has been providing intentional opportunities for the open exchange of ideas and thoughtful conversation among students and faculty. He previously served as Yale's vice president for global strategy and as a vice provost with responsibility for research on international matters and the support of teaching and learning. From 2012 to 2017, he served as founding president of Yale-NUS College in Singapore.
A scholar of literary modernism, Lewis has authored three books and is a contributing editor for the Norton Anthology of World Literature.
Members of the Yale and New Haven communities are invited to attend the lecture series, for free. Yale undergraduates may enroll in the course for credit.
The lecture series, established in 1969, is named for William Clyde DeVane, dean of Yale College from 1939 to 1963. Last year's course, "America at 250: A History," was taught jointly by Yale history professors Joanne Freeman, David W. Blight, and Beverly Gage.
Lewis first started teaching the course, he said, to help undergraduates think deeply about the purpose of their four years at Yale "and to think a little more broadly than just, what major am I going to choose or what career am I going to pursue?"
To that end, class sessions will explore four major themes: character, community, citizenship, and conversation. Questions through the semester might include what can be gained by living in a collegiate community, how college can prepare responsible citizens, the advantages of learning through conversation, and economic factors in access to a college education.
Given that 2026 marks the 325th anniversary of Yale's founding, the course will also look at how liberal arts education has changed and developed at the institution over the centuries - including the university during its earliest years, Yale during wartime, and "the development of the research university, especially in the second half of the 20th century," Lewis said.
While assigned readings in the course are optional for members of the public, Lewis recommends having a copy of Plato's "Republic" on hand to follow the nuances of the lectures. The readings will amount to about 30-40 pages a week.
While the course was originally designed to inspire reflection among undergrads, Lewis said he hopes that the lecture series will be "fulfilling for citizens who are interested in the role of college in society, not only in democracy generally, but also specifically in Connecticut."
Members of the public must register for the DeVane Lectures on the course website. Registration begins April 13. Beginning on September 2, lectures will take place Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:30 p.m. - 3:20 p.m., in O.C. Marsh Lecture Hall, in the Yale Science Building (260 Whitney Ave.).
