SJC News:
SANTA FE — The St. John’s College Graduate Institute has announced its summer lecture series. On Wednesdays throughout the summer, the college offers presentations by members of the faculty and visiting scholars from notable universities across the country.
Lectures will be held in person on the college’s campuses in Santa Fe and Annapolis, Md. They are free and open to the public; seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Each lecture will also be posted on the college’s YouTube channel.
The full schedule can be viewed at sjc.edu/summer-lecture-series. To learn about other events at St. John’s College, see the Events Calendar.
The lectures on the Santa Fe campus will be held at 4:15 p.m., St. John’s College, Junior Common Room, Peterson Student Center, 1160 Camino de Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505. Santa Fe lectures will premiere on YouTube at 7 p.m., Fridays.
“The Graduate Institute is proud to offer this series of lectures free to our students, alumni, and friends,” says David Carl, Associate Dean for the Graduate Programs in Santa Fe. “While classes at St. John’s generally proceed through discussion among students, the lectures provide an opportunity for participants to hear an extended account from someone with considerable learning.”
The Santa Fe lectures are:
- June 24: “George Eliot’s Beautiful Atheistic Religiousness” – Richard McCombs
- July 1: “On the Origin of the Great Books Program at St. John’s College” – David Levine
- July 8: Sociologist Musa al-Gharbi will present a lecture
- July 15: Panel Discussion on the New Middle Eastern Classics Program
- July 22: “Václav Havel and Jan Patočka: To Live (and Die) in Truth” – David Satran
- July 29: “Equity, Justice, and the Rule of Law” – Nick Gooding
The lectures on the Annapolis campus will premiere on YouTube at 9:30 p.m. MT, Wednesdays. In conjunction with the 250th anniversary of the United States, the theme for the Annapolis summer lecture series is “Thinking about America at St. John’s College.”
The Annapolis lectures are:
- June 10: “Where to Begin a Study of American Thought?” — Jonathan Badger, Janet Dougherty, and Rob Mass
- June 17: “St. John’s College in America” — Dan Harrell
- July 1: “Must the World be Completely Determined? Dewey’s ‘Frontier’ Metaphysics” — Khafiz Kerimov
- July 8: “The Man Who Knew Nothing: Hitchcock’s America” — Nicholas Bellinson
- July 15: “The Spirit of American Music” — André Barbera
- July 22: “What is the White Whale?” — Zena Hitz
- July 29: “‘Another Kind of Clay:’ The Many Beginnings of Blood Meridian” — Lee Goldsmith
The St. John’s College Graduate Institute offers Master of Arts degrees in Western, Eastern, and Middle Eastern classics. Courses may be completed over the summer or during convenient evening hours in the fall and spring. Applications are currently being accepted for the Fall 2026 and Spring 2027. For more details and to apply, visit sjc.edu/academic-programs/graduate.
About St. John’s College
In an age of political division and digital distraction, St. John’s College offers the education America needs. Through close reading of 200 great books across 3,000 years—from Plato to Toni Morrison, Augustine to Charles Darwin, Euclid to Albert Einstein—students wrestle with the deepest questions of law, justice, freedom, and human good. At a time when many institutions chase trends, St. John’s returns to first principles. The third-oldest college in America, with campuses in Annapolis, Maryland, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, St. John’s is a refuge for civic renewal, civil discourse, and intellectual courage. Learn more about our undergraduate, graduate, and lifelong learning programs at sjc.edu.
“St. John’s is a high-achieving angel hovering over the landscape of American higher education” —Los Angeles Times