Course Spotlight: The Boston Clemente Course at Codman Square, Dorchester
This spring, the Boston Mayor’s Office issued an official commendation to the Clemente Course at Codman Square, celebrating 25 years of free, college-level humanities education for adults in Boston.
Linda Dolan, herself a graduate of the program, prompted the mayor's office to consider the honor, and they did. The Boston Clemente Course in Dorchester is supported by Mass Humanities along with several other sites across Massachusetts.
For Course Director Dr. Carter Hardy, who also teaches moral philosophy, that’s a story worth telling: not just that the program earned an award, but that a graduate turned coordinator saw the program's history and its worth, and took the initiative herself.
"That's totally her idea, her initiative. She carried it all the way to completion," Hardy said. "I did nothing for this, except hire her."
Linda’s work reached beyond the commendation. As alumni coordinator, a role made possible through Clemente National Access Initiative funding, she helped bring roughly 15 alumni back to this year's graduation, reconnecting the Dorchester Clemente community across cohorts.
“Our Diverse cultural backgrounds made class time so interesting, inspirational, and a fun learning environment. The most important part of Clemente’s experience is having a safety net provided, of having an outlet that is supported without any judgement.”
-Marie Antoinette
In the Classroom: Banned Books and the Philosophy of what Gets Silenced
This past year, the Dorchester faculty built a cross-disciplinary unit around censorship: what gets banned, why, and by whom. In American History, Dr. Timothy McCarthy taught the history of revolutions, which he connected to changes in the US as we approached the 250th anniversary of American independence. Students read Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye together with literature faculty Dr. Sylvester Danson Kahyana, a first novel for several students, and a first Morrison title even for some of the faculty. Art history faculty Dr. Jack Cheng shared works that had been censored or removed from museums. And Hardy's own session traced the philosophy of banning back to Plato's Republic, recently banned by a Texas university over its account of the origin of love.
“They understood why some people wanted to ban it," Hardy said of his students' response, "but didn’t think it was a good reason to." Many connected the text to their own families and relationships. It's the kind of discussion, Hardy noted, that lets students "hear the case" being made against a text and weigh it on its merits, turning a national news story into a live philosophical inquiry in their own classroom.
“The Clemente Course has been an instrument in me furthering my education along with my passion to always learn something new. Engaging, brainstorming while laughing and getting to know my classmates has been a true pleasure.”
-Tiffany
Building Community Across a Hybrid year
Facing New England winters that have historically thinned spring attendance, the course piloted a hybrid model this year: in-person in the fall, fully remote in the spring. The shift let the program welcome new students who couldn't otherwise attend — including one student, laid off mid-semester, whom the course supported with emergency funds for a computer so she could keep attending online, and a new parent who joined remotely and stayed engaged from home. Rather than splitting the cohort, the returning students helped set the tone for the newcomers, carrying the community they'd already built into a new format.
Longtime faculty Jack Cheng (Art History) and Timothy Patrick McCarthy (American History), who've taught in the course for 25 years, were honored at graduation with the program's first faculty service awards, presented with Clemente President James Shorris on hand to celebrate alongside students and family.
What's Next?
Dr. Hardy and the team at Codman Square Health Center, which hosts the course, are already recruiting for the coming year, with Hardy planning to meet prospective students directly at the Codman Square farmers market this July.
The two-semester course meets in person two nights a week, Mondays and Wednesdays, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. The fall semester runs mid-September through mid-December, and the spring semester runs mid-January through graduation in late May. Students who successfully complete the course are eligible to receive six free college credits from Bard College, transferable to any college or university.
If you know someone in Boston who might be ready for an
award winning, free, college-level humanities course, no prior experience with academic writing or literature required, the course welcomes new applicants on a rolling basis.
Learn more and apply: Clemente Course in the Humanities at Codman Square Health Center
This feature is based on a June 2026 interview with Dr. Carter Hardy , Course Director and philosophy faculty, Clemente Course in the Humanities at Codman Square Health Center.
