Past Events

2025-2026

Film Screenings

Fall 2025

  1. Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby (2013)
  2. Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men (1957)
  3. Kurosawa Akira’s Throne of Blood (1957)

Winter 2026

  1. Richard Lester’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966)
  2. Sam Wood’s A Night at the Opera (1935)
  3. Sophocles’ Antigone performed by National Theatre (2013)

Spring 2026

  1. Toshio Matsumoto’s Funeral Parade of Roses (1970)

Literary Discussions

Fall 2025

  1. Short Story: Ralph Ellison’s “In A Strange Country”
  2. Short Story: Jorge Luis Borges’ Short Story “The Secret Miracle”

Winter 2026

  1. Poem: Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Man,” Epistle II (On the Individual)
  2. Short Story: Nikolai Gogol’s The Nose

Seminar

Fall 2025

  1. Hosted by Amer Hamid: Alexander Pope’s An Essay On Man, Epistle I

Winter 2026

  1. Hosted by Amer Hamid: Alexander Pope’s An Essay On Man, Epistle III
  2. Student-led seminar: “What is Tragedy? The Question of Free Will”: Discussion of Terry Eagleton’s Tragedy

Interact Theatre

Fall 2025

  1. Play Reading: Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband

Spring 2026

  1. Play Reading: Clifford Odets’ Waiting For Lefty

Tour

Fall 2025

  1. Focus Tour: Getty Center Museum’s Renaissance Collection

Winter 2026

  1. Tour: Hammer Museum

                  2024-2025

                  Gloria Cheng

                  1. Lecture: Music and Math: A Perfectly Imperfect Harmony – From Pythagoras to Adès
                  2. Seminar: The Heart and Soul in Musical Modernism

                  Andrew Lang

                  1. Lecture: Whither “Gratitude To Our Fathers?” Abraham Lincoln And The American Union
                  2. Seminar: American Exceptionalism And The Civil War Era

                  James Hankins

                  1. Lecture: What Can We Learn From The Western Tradition?
                  2. Seminar: Meritocracy And Its Critics In The Premodern West

                  Ward Farnsworth

                  1. Lecture: The Socratic Method in Ordinary Life
                  2. Seminar: The Practicing Stoic

                  Constance Walker

                  1. Lecture: Dorothea Primrose Campbell: Jane Austen’s Neglected Scottish Contemporary
                  2. Seminar: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

                  Kathryn Lynch

                  1. Lecture: “Was Geoffrey Chaucer “Every Woman’s Friend”? and Why Does It Matter?”
                  2. Seminar: Two of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales: the Wife of Bath’s and Shipman’s Tales

                  2023-2024

                  Barry Kraft

                  1. Lecture: Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”
                  2. Seminar: Samuel L. Johnson’s preface to Shakespeare

                  Interact Theater

                  1. Play Reading: Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest

                  Cynthia Clegg

                  1. Lecture: Censoring Shakespeare: Custom and the Rule of Law
                  2. Seminar: Shakespeare’s Othello

                  Daniel Hannan

                  1. Lecture: How Like a God: Shakespeare and the Making of Our Reality.
                  2. Seminar: Shakespeare‘s Henry V.

                  Robert Greenberg

                  1. Lecture: Beethoven in the Movies
                  2. Seminar: Amadeus

                  Matt Malkan

                  1. Lecture: Why What A Lot of People Think About Science Is Wrong
                  2. Seminar: Is Our Universe “Fine-Tuned” For Life?

                  James Muller

                  1. Lecture: Churchill’s Thoughts as Adventures
                  2. Seminar: Churchill’s Finest Hour: the Wartime Speeches

                  2022-2023

                  Mark Bauerlein

                  1. Seminar: The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Chapters 10 and 11
                  2. Lecture: The Fall of the Millennials

                  Susan McWilliams Barndt

                  1. Seminar: Rip Van Winkle and American Civic Life
                  2. Lecture: How the Counterculture Won the War: The Merry Pranksters, The Hells Angels, and the Party That Foretold American Politics 

                  Interact Theater

                  1. Play Reading: Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya

                  Gary Saul Morson

                  1. Seminar: Three Stories by Anton Chekhov: “The Duel.” “Lights.” “Happiness.”
                  2. Lecture: What Does Not Happen in Uncle Vanya?

                  Jean Yarbrough

                  1. Seminar: Alexis De Tocqueville’s Democracy in America (Excerpts)
                  2. Lecture: Lincoln and Tocqueville on Slavery

                  Michael Kulikowski

                  1. Seminar: The Fall of the Western Roman Empire
                  2. Lecture: The Eurasian Turn in Late Antiquity

                  2021-2022

                  Jonathan Bank

                  1. Seminar: Conflict, a play by Miles Malleson
                  2. Lecture: Exploding the Dramatic Canon

                  Paul Rahe

                  1. Seminar: The Influence of Commercial Sea Power on History
                  2. Lecture: Ancient, Modern, and Post-Modern

                  Interact Theater

                  1. Play Reading: Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen

                  Michael Ward

                  1. Seminar: C.S. Lewis, Studies in Words (Excerpts)
                  2. Lecture: C.S. Lewis and Liberality

                  2020-2021

                  Rafe Esquith

                  1. Seminar: Almost Impossible: Creating a Lifelong Reader in a Mixed-Up, Muddled-Up, Shook-Up World
                  2. Lecture: Beyond the Test: Three Ways to Change a Student’s Life Forever and for Better

                  Carol McNamara

                  1. Seminar: Shakespeare’s The Tempest
                  2. Lecture: Tom Wolfe’s America

                  Interact Theater

                  1. Play Reading: Noel Coward’s Private Lives

                  2019-2020

                  James Ceaser

                  1. Seminar: What is Populism and Where is it Going?
                  2. Lecture: James Madison: The Founder of Modern Founding

                  James Muller

                  1. Seminar: Churchill’s My Early Life
                  2. Lecture: The Education of Winston Churchill

                  Interact Theater

                  1. Play Reading: Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard

                  Gary Gallagher

                  1. Seminar: Abraham Lincoln, Union War Aims, and the Limits of Reconstruction
                  2. Lecture: Was Reconstruction a Lost Moment? Understanding the Connection between Union War Aims and Postwar Realities.

                  2018-2019

                  Daniel Lowenstein

                  1. Seminar: Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure
                  2. Lecture: Law and Mercy in The Merchant of Venice

                  Joshua Mitchell

                  1. Seminar: Tocqueville’s Democracy in America
                  2. Lecture: Globalism and the Crisis of Inheritance

                  Bill Harlan

                  1. Seminar: Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part One
                  2. Lecture: ‘Aye, Too Gentle!’: Re-Examining the Motives for Evil in Othello.

                  Robert Greenberg

                  1. Seminar: Mozart’s Don Giovanni
                  2. Lecture: Will the Real Wolfgang Mozart Please Stand Up?

                  Interact Theater

                  1. Play Reading: Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia

                  Constance Walker

                  1. Seminar: Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
                  2. Lecture: Jane Austen, Aristotle, and the Perfect Plot

                  Lorraine Pangle

                  1. Seminar: Plato’s Criticism of Homer in The Rebublic
                  2. Lecture: Homer, Educator of the Greeks (and Us)

                  Joan Waugh

                  1. Seminar: Primary Documents Related to the 1868 Election
                  2. Lecture: ‘Let Us Have Peace’: U.S. Grant, Union, and Civil Rights in the Election of 1868.

                  Interact Theater

                  1. Play Reading: Bernard Shaw’s The Devil’s Discipline

                  Barry Kraft

                  1. Seminar: Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Lucan’s Pharsalia
                  2. Lecture: Hamlet and the Spirit of Revenge

                  2017-2018

                  Interact Theater

                  1. Play Reading: Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People

                  Alan Blumenfeld

                  1. Seminar: Chain Potok’s The Chosen
                  2. Lecture: Finding Shylock: Love and Mercy in The Merchant of Venice

                  Craig Yirush

                  1. Seminar: The Declaration of Independence
                  2. Lecture: Dissenting Voices fro 1776: Why Islanders, Loyalists, Africans, and Indians Rejected the American Revolution

                  Bruce Redford

                  1. Seminar: Goethe’s account of his visit to Italy
                  2. Lecture: The Grand Tour of Europe

                  Diana Schaub

                  1. Seminar: Douglass’ Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln
                  2. Lecture: Abraham Lincoln and the Daughters of Dread Scott

                  AnthonyKronman

                  1. Seminar: Max Weber’s Politics as a Vocation
                  2. Lecture: Is Ours a Godless Age?

                  John Maurer

                  1. Seminar: Churchill’s essays on before, during, and after the war
                  2. Lecture: Churchill, America, and the Great War

                  Interact Theater

                  1. Play Reading: Euripides’ Hippolytus and Racine’s Phaedra

                  2016-2017

                  Interact Theater

                  1. Play Reading: Tom Stoppard’s Rough Crossing .

                  Woody Holton

                  1. Seminar: Letters of Abigail Adams
                  2. Lecture: Washington Schlepped Here: How George Washington Admitted an Error and Won the Revolutionary War.

                  Gary Saul Morson

                  1. Seminar: Three Stories by Anton Chekhov.
                  2. Lecture: Russian Lessons from 1917: Novelists and the Intelligentsia.

                  Susan McWilliams

                  1. Seminar: Walt Whitman’s Song of the Open Road
                  2. LectureL Reading the American Road Trip.

                  Allen Guelzo

                  1. Seminar: (Re)Visioning Reconstruction.
                  2. Lecture: ReconstructionL The Last Bourgeois Revolution.

                  Andy Robinson

                  1. Seminar: Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night.
                  2. Lecture:Stepping into the Light: An Actor’s Journey.

                  Barry Shain

                  1. Seminar: Monarchy, Republicanism, and the American Revolution.
                  2. Lecture: The Tragic American Revolution and the Accidental Republic.

                  Interact Theater

                  1. Play Reading: Moliere’s The Misanthrope

                  Wanda Corn

                  1. Seminar: Writing’s on Georgia O’Keeffe
                  2. Lecture: The Three Lives of Grant Wood’s American Gothic.

                  2015-2016

                  Interact Theater

                  1. Play Reading: Jerry Sterner’s Other People’s Money

                  Robert Putnam

                  1. Seminar: Our Kids
                  2. Lecture: Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis

                  Matthew Crawford

                  1. Seminar: Francois Furet’s Passing of an Illusion: The Idea of Communism in the Twentieth Century.
                  2. Lecture: Attention as a Cultural Problem

                  Michael Allen

                  1. Seminar: William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Table.
                  2. Lecture: William Shakespeare’s Henry IV.

                  Mark Wahlgren Summers

                  1. Seminar: The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson.
                  2. Lecture: Dead Man Walking: The Not-So-Strange Stillbirth of Radical Reconstruction, 1868.

                  Fred Sanders

                  1. Seminar: Sophocles’ Antigone.
                  2. Lecture: Law, Rigor, and Personal Responsibility in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Take and Sophocles’ Antigone.

                  Vernon Smith

                  1. Seminar: Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments.
                  2. Lecture: On Changing False Beliefs: Three Cases from Experimental Economics.

                  Interact Theater

                  1. Play Reading: Jean Anoulih’s and Sophocles’ Antigone

                  Paul Cantor

                  1. Seminar: The Merchant of Venice: Shakespeare’s View of the Commercial Republic.
                  2. Lecture: Robinson Crusoe and the Enlightenment Spirit of Capitalism.
                  Event