The Legacy Project provides Internet-based resources and reference materials of particular interest to undergraduate students enrolled in 100-level courses offered by the University Honors Program (UHP) at the University of New Mexico (UNM) as well as to students and researchers beyond the UNM community.

To foster an exploration of earlier cultures instrumental to the development of our own culture, that of the U.S. in the 21st century, the Legacy Project seeks to provide convenient access to resources and reference materials useful to the study of such subjects. Because UHP believes students benefit greatly from collaborative learning and active involvement, materials included in the Legacy Project are primarily written and researched by UHP students in our 100-level classes. While access to existing Internet resources is also provided, our goal is to create a site that provides a means through which students themselves can explore and respond to the ideas and desires, ambitions and frailties, achievements and disasters of earlier societies.

As part of its standard curriculum, UHP offers three 100-level interdisciplinary seminars in which students examine the development of Western thought and culture from ancient times through the 19th century.  These courses are the Ancient Legacy, Medieval Legacy, and Modern Legacy.  Roughly speaking, Ancient Legacy courses explore works and ideas up to 500 a.d., while the Medieval Legacy courses deal with subjects important to western cultures from 500-1500 a.d., and Modern Legacy courses study the period between 1500 and 1900 a.d.

Interdisciplinary in scope and using seminar-style approaches, these courses teach critical thinking skills and suggest how materials from earlier cultures relate to students' personal lives. While the study of the classics of literature and history from earlier periods is important to an understanding of the development of western culture, UHP's Legacy courses seek to go beyond the vistas of traditional western civilization courses to include materials from art, music, drama, anthropology, religion, and science among others.

Despite recent criticism of the traditional classical canon within the academic curriculum, UHP considers traditional works important to contemporary students because such works have shaped the attitudes and heritage of the society in which we live today. In the academic world, works by writers such as Homer, Shakespeare, Dante, Euclid, Sappho, Darwin, and Aristotle, among others, are still considered essential parts of a well-rounded college education. UHP's view is that students of the 21st century cannot meaningfully and effectively participate in the present if they do not understand its roots in the past. With this in mind, the Legacy Project has been designed to encourage student exploration of earlier cultures and the connections these cultures have to contemporary life. In addition, while the UHP faculty disagrees that the classical canon has become obsolete, we advocate perceptions that view the established canon as a flexible, living canon that provides guidance for understanding and responding to today's society. Therefore, along with traditional works and materials, the Legacy Project encourages students to explore alternative works that relate significantly to canonical perspectives and materials.

Fall 2001 Legacy Series Lecture by V. B. Price