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The research project Reading for Meaning and Purpose (REMAP) aims to address the humanistic needs of European university students through great works of literature. At the University of Navarra, it is part of the Civic Humanism Center at ICS and has close links to the University of Navarra’s Core Curriculum Institute and its Great Books program. At the University of Navarra, Beatriz Gómez, a researcher at the Faculty of Communication; Álvaro Sánchez-Ostiz, a researcher in Philosophy and Literature; Emma Cohen de Lara, a researcher at ICS; and Rosalía Baena, the principal investigator and Vice-Rector of Students are participating. Professor Rosalía Baena is answering the questions below regarding the development of the project. The REMAP project is a collaboration between four European universities: University of Amsterdam (Netherlands), University of Latvia, Bratislava International School of Liberal Arts (Slovakia), and the University of Navarra, as well as the Ayalde School (Bilbao).

    Q. What do we mean by meaningful reading?

Basically, it is a way of reading literature that may leave a lasting impact on a student’s life. The student is invited to read with an open attitude and in search of truth, making it a personally meaningful activity for university students.

This type of reading also increases intellectual openness, attentiveness, curiosity, and empathy. For example, reading a good literary text may provide a perspective on reality that can complement what a student learns in scientific disciplines, thus achieving the interdisciplinary knowledge essential for their university education. Overall, the meaningful reading of literature will develop an intellectual mindset that helps the student flourish academically.

    Q. A university student cannot be understood without reading.

Indeed, reading is essential to the university experience. Modern universities are increasingly noticing the shortcomings that stem from a university education that values applied and technical knowledge while excluding the broader intellectual, emotional, and civic needs of the student. Students may also lose interest in reading literature, whereas it has so much to offer them. With REMAP, we aim to help students connect the literary experience to their own life experience. This approach is crucial for the motivation of students to read because they start to experience the pleasure of reading literature. Once the spark is ignited, the dedication to reading literature translates into intellectual and personal abilities that literature can help develop.

    Q. How did this research come about?

We identified an educational need related to the intellectual and personal formation of the student. In Europe, there are about 18 million university students, and many face emotional well-being issues and a lack of personal purpose. This is incompatible with their age and we wish for them to be enthusiastic and flourishing instead of anxious and depressed. There is sociological research that understands university students as “emerging adults”, meaning that they are postponing major life decisions in order to spend time on thinking about their identity and purpose in the world. Young people between 18 and 25 have specific educational needs. Many universities have forgotten that humanistic education is a vital need at this stage. Literature and great texts have much to offer students; their usefulness is not just for general cultural knowledge, but they can also serve as a foundation for personal development.

The mission of the REMAP-project is for university students to read more, read better, and connect their reading to their lives and the real world. Reading literature should not result in fossilized knowledge and it is not a purely technical, disciplinary endeavor. Reading literature attentively, with curiosity and open-mindedness while making connections to one’s own life has great personal meaning.

    Q. What applications will the project have?

The results will be fourfold. The first is to write an accessible manual for university teachers in any disciplinary field interested in preparing a course based on great works of literature or incorporating literature in their disciplinary courses. The idea is for any specialist at universities to be able to use it.

A second application will be a course to be taught at all participating universities to validate the Meaningful Reading Manual. Third, we will develop a teacher training guide. Lastly, there is the ongoing project at the Faculty of Communication: Reading Mentors, upper-year students who help first-year students with reading. This project, directed by Professor Beatriz Gómez at the Faculty of Communication, works wonderfully and contributes to promoting reading. All the while, we will be working closely with high school teachers to ensure that the REMAP-project deliverables are adequately transferred to the high school level as well.

    Q. When we talk about great books and foundational texts, what do we mean?

In the Meaningful Reading Manual, which will be digitally accessible and edited by Professor Sánchez-Ostiz et al., we will include suggestions. What do we mean by great books? These are classics that have endured and continue to be significant to this day, and there is consensus about them. But these are also more recent books considered classics because they offer vital experiences, and there are certain literary texts from the participating countries – Spain, Netherlands, Latvia, and Slovakia – that we may want to include. The researchers who are part of the REMAP-project have many years of experience with texts and authors that resonate with students. We seek to share this knowledge.

The magic lies in a professor being able to transmit their own enthusiasm for reading and teach the student to develop this habit beyond their years at university. That is why the Meaningful Reading Manual will include a preselection of classics, which is always subjective and changing, and can be updated. Literature is life itself, not something artificial or from another era.