St. John’s College is presenting its fall Formal Lecture Series. On Friday evenings, St. John’s College community members gather in the Francis Scott Key Auditorium to hear a lecture or performance from visiting scholars, artists, poets, or faculty. Lecturers include members of the St. John’s College faculty (known as tutors) and professors from notable universities across the country. Each lecture is followed by a question period and an engaging discussion between the lecturer and attendees.
“We are proud to bring world-class thought leaders to Annapolis,” says St. John’s College President Nora Demleitner. “I encourage all members of the community to join us for the lectures and performances this fall.”
All lectures begin at 7:30 p.m. ET on Fridays at St. John’s College, Mellon Hall, Francis Scott Key Auditorium, 60 College Avenue, Annapolis, MD 21401. They are free and open to the public. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.
“In the St. John’s classroom, students and faculty converse together about fundamental questions. In the Friday night lecture, we get to hear a longer account from someone who has thought deeply about the topic,” says dean of the college Susan Paalman. “The question period after each lecture is an important part, as it sparks a conversation amongst the whole community.”
The 2023 lectures are:
September 22: Tutor Khafiz Kerimov will lecture on Ptolemy.
September 29: Robert Bartlett, Behrakis Professor in Hellenic Political Studies at Boston College, will deliver the lecture “Rhetoric and Democracy: Introduction to Aristotle’s Rhetoric.”
October 13-14: A special series of lectures will be held in honor of the college’s longest-serving faculty member and National Humanities Medal winner Eva Brann.
- Friday, October 13, 8 p.m. Tutor Peter Kalkavage will present “Recollection” and tutor Eric Salem will present “Wonder.”
- Saturday, October 14, 10 a.m. Tutor Joan Silver will present “Roots: of Living Things; of Inquiry; of a Friendship” and tutor Janet Dougherty will present “Liberal Imaginings.”
Tuesday, October 17, 7 p.m. Karl Walling will present his lecture “Political Science and Political Medicine: Thucydides, the Federalist, and American Grand Strategy.”
October 27: Tutor Ron Haflidson will deliver the lecture “What the heck is hell? Divine judgement in the Gospel of Matthew.”
“In this lecture, I explore the largely neglected and perhaps totally wrong possibility that when Jesus spoke about “hell,” he wasn’t talking about the afterlife. The inquiry proceeds by focusing on Jesus’ words in the Gospel of Matthew (the New Testament text with by far the most references to hell). I will pursue the case that for Matthew’s Jesus, hell was an impending event within history, not a place some people go after they die. The lecture is divided into two parts: in the first, we consider the various ways that lead to hell; in the second, we examine the nature of hell itself.”
November 3: Kevin Kambo, assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Dallas will lecture on Plato’s Republic, about the fall of Kallipolis, and the noble lie.
November 17: Annapolis tutor Rebecca Goldner will deliver the lecture “Marcel Proust’s Turning of the Table.”
December 1: Enrique J. “Kiko” Galvez, chair and Charles A. Dana professor in the department of physics and astronomy at Colgate University, will present a lecture on physics.
December 8: St. John’s student-run theater troupe, the King William Players, will perform a classic theater production.
Visit Formal Lecture Series on the Annapolis Campus for more information and additional lecture details. To learn about other events at St. John’s College, see the Events Calendar.
