“How can we demonstrate care and impart knowledge? How can we manage a classroom while leaving space for self-discovery? How can we integrate experience with education? How can we be caring adults in the lives of young people? There are very few books about being a professor that approach the topic from the student perspective. If we are willing to consider a non-traditional student and a non-traditional approach, we might find the Virgil of Dante’s Inferno to be a very good guide for college professors.
“Dante will not just emerge from Hell having seen some things. He will emerge from Hell with more wisdom and strength of his own. By the end of Inferno, Dante achieves nearly all the desirable non-academic learning outcomes for an undergraduate student. He undertakes a journey and learns at every stop along the way.” — Elizabeth Stice, “Dante’s Virgil as Guide for College Professors: Insights from Inferno,” Front Porch Republic, February 1, 2024.
