Classics and Medievalist students, Oxford, 1981.
u/BlackCocktober — 3 days ago
The logo of the infamous "Integrated Humanities Program" at the University of Kansas (1970-79). A classics and great books program with an emphasis on wonder (students also learned stargazing, waltzing, poetry, and folk singing) it was shut down when a newspaper expose uncovered cult-like activity.
Obviously, Tartt had her own experiences at Bennington that influenced The Secret History, and the IHP predates her by quite a bit, but the program, under the influence of classics grandee Dennis Quinn, is a very dramatic (and unexpected given the public state school setting) exemplar of the cultish, highly aestheticized back-to-the-classics movement that was a very real thing in the aftermath of the hippie movement.
It also devolved into a media circus that torched several careers when several students dropped out to join cloistered religious communities and the program's leaders were accused of proselytization and abuse of power. They were ultimately cleared, and the IHP's former staff and students remain a powerful clique in certain elements of American traditionalist/perennial movements to this day.
u/BlackCocktober — 8 days ago