Chrestomathy

Debate poster, 1879

Chrestomathy is the College of Charleston's journal for outstanding undergraduate research in the humanities and social sciences. The inaugural issue was published in 2002, and a new issue appears each fall.

Each major program in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and the School of Languages, Cultures, and World Affairs selects one paper to appear in the journal. Additional spaces will be reserved for especially deserving additional papers from these major programs, and for papers written for interdisciplinary minors or related fields in other schools (e.g. art history, economics, theater). Papers will typically be selected at the end of the spring semester.

The word "chrestomathy" comes from the Greek, meaning "useful learning."  The word has two meanings in English:  (1) a selection of passages used as an aid to learning a language; and (2) an anthology of works, often but not always by single author.  The Chrestomathic Literary Society was an undergraduate organization founded at the College of Charleston in 1848.  It existed for more than a century, by some accounts into the 1970's.  The image above is taken from a poster advertising a debate in 1879.