Since 2001, I have taught college level art history classes to low-income adults in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston through the Clemente Course in the Humanities. For a dozen years, I served as the Academic Director of the course.

The Clemente Course in the Humanities is a year-long, college-level introduction to the humanities taught to adults. We teach art history, moral philosophy, American history, literature and writing & critical thinking in Monday and Wednesday evening classes that run from mid-September through early June.  The program provides free tuition, books and materials to qualified students. Graduates who complete the work of the program earn six college credits from Bard College, which can be transferred to any college or university.

The course is taught by dedicated teachers who have taught at Harvard, Boston College, Assumption College, UMass Boston, Framingham State and more.

Many people who have taken the course have gone on (or back) to college.  Others take the class to educate themselves and exercise their brains, or to meet like-minded people in their community.

Students range in age from 20 to 75; they are parents, grandparents, neighbors, churchgoers, readers — anyone without a degree from a four-year college who is willing to commit to the course is welcome. Some films and slideshows that capture the classroom and student experience can be found here, here and here.

The Clemente Course is taught across the country, including in five other sites in Massachusetts, supported by MassHumanities. Since 2001, the course has been offered in Dorchester in partnership with the Codman Square Health Center.

Boston Clemente Timeline

• In 1995, Earl Shorris teaches the first course at the Roberto Clemente Family Guidance Center in Lower Manhattan; the site gives the course a name.
• In 2000, the first Clemente Course in Massachusetts is given at the Care Center in Holyoke. Kristin O’Connell, Associate Director of Mass Humanities, is the driving force in bringing this concept to the commonwealth.
• In 2001, the class is established in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston as a partnership with Codman Square Health Center. Neil Dolan serves as the first Academic Director, followed by Tim McCarthy.
• From 2003 through 2005, I co-direct the course with Wendy Quinones. Tim McCarthy then returned as Academic Director.
• In 2011, I take on the duties of Academic Director again, this time by myself.
• In 2014, Timothy P McCarthy, is awarded the Stanley Paterson Professorship in American History; the first endowed chair of any kind for any Clemente program in the world.
• In 2014, documentary film producers James Rutenbeck and Diana Fischer contact the course about making a film about our students. The film resulting documentary, A Reckoning in Boston, will be shown at film festivals and colleges in 2021 ahead of a national broadcast.
• In 2014, President Obama awards the Clemente Course a National Humanities Medal.
• In 2016, I invite our writing instructor, Ann Murphy, to be an Associate Director of our course.
• In 2017, David Montgomery of the Washington Post includes our class in his article about the effects of defunding the NEA and NEH.
• In 2017, I am part of a team that writes a successful NEH grant to develop a Clemente Course for veterans, eventually called the Clemente Veterans Initiative (CVI).
• In 2018 and 2019, I team teach and co-direct a CVI course with Ann Murphy and Ruth Rohde. Among the many highlights is a guest lecture by Pulitzer-nominated historian Megan Kate Nelson, and a dramatic reading of Euripedes’ Herakles Gone Mad by local actors Linda Goetz and Eliott Purcell.
• Following the 2019-2020 school year, I step down as Academic Director and Ann Murphy and Julia Legas serve as co-directors, taking the course online through the pandemic.
• In the autumn of 2020, the Clemente faculty collaborate on an online series of discussions focused on topics like community. Alumni and new participants join from across the country.
• On January 17, 2022, A Reckoning in Boston airs nationwide on PBS (as part of Independent Lens) to critical acclaim.
• An article in the Winter 2022 issue of NEH’s Humanities Magazine, Building the Just City, focuses on A Reckoning, Clemente in Boston, and quotes local faculty.
• In Spring of 2022, after another successful NEH grant, I begin co-teaching four semester-long CVI course online with Jim Dubinsky of Virginia Tech. This course incorporates service learning and discussion facilitation training into the syllabus. Bancroft Prize winner Ari Kelman visits our zoom to discuss writing his nonfiction graphic novel Battle Lines, a history of the Civil War.
• In 2023-4, Dominick Knowles and Linda Chavers co-direct the course. They bring on Carter Hardy to teach moral philosophy.
• In 2024-5, Dominick serves as the sole Academic Director. Rachel Dale joins as the writing teacher.
• National Clemente Director Aaron Rosen announces in March 2025 that the Clemente Course has been awarded the largest grant in its history from the Mellon Foundation.
• Carter Hardy directs the course in 2025-6, hiring Sylvester Danson Kahyana to teach literature. At the mid point of the class, all the faculty join to teach online discussions on censorship and to discuss The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.

If you’d like to attend the Clemente Course, or are interested as a donor or a journalist, please contact me.