MLD-351: Leadership Literacy

Semester: Spring

Credit: 1.0

Faculty: Barbara Kellerman

Schedule

Day Time Location
First Day 1/26
Meet Day T/Th 10:10 AM - 11:30 AM L130
Review

Description

This course considers the leadership literature judged seminal. The first half of the semester will be devoted to readings  from Lao Tsu to Lenin; the second half will focus on 20th century writers from Freud to Friedan. The course is designed to evoke reflective thinking about the prescriptive implications of work widely acknowledged to have enduring impact. Since the pedagogy is Socratic, students are expected to speak in some depth about work by a wide range of thinkers and activists. (Short papers are also required.) The course explores the following questions: (1) What makes this work “required reading?” (2) What kind of a world follows from the worldview of this particular writer? (3) What distinguishes writing about leadership from writing as leadership? (4) How do great ideas affect public life? The main text for the course will be Kellerman’s new book on the great leadership literature, to be published in 2010.