St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures

Recording of a lecture delivered on January 15, 2016, by Santa Fe tutor Caleb Thompson as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Thompson says of his lecture: "Thucydides writes that during the horrors of the civil war in Corcyra, 'Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given them.' Or did they? We will look closely at the translation of that passage, reflect on the...

Recording of a lecture delivered on September 2, 2022, by William Braithwaite as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Mr. Braithwaite offers this description: "The Garden of Eden story, about Adam and Eve, what they did and how they were punished for it, is the authoritative source for the Christian doctrine of original sin. Before St. Augustine and St. Paul appropriated it for this purpose, however...

Recording of a lecture delivered on March 25, 2011, by Barbara Hanning as part of the Formal Lecture Series.

Recording of a lecture delivered on September 3, 2010, by Daniel Harrell as part of the Formal Lecture Series.

Recording of a lecture delivered on January 19, 2018, by Aaron Garrett as part of the Formal Lecture Series.

Recording of a lecture delivered on November 18, 1977, by Eva Brann as part of the Formal Lecture Series. The first few sentences of Brann's lecture are cut off by recording problems, just after the word, "Tonight." In Brann's lecture transcript, this paragraph reads, "Tonight I shall commit the deliberate indiscretion of trying to say what may be, all in all, unsayable. Let me, therefore, begin w...

Recording of a lecture delivered on October 15, 2010, by Peter Kalkavage as part of the Formal Lecture Series. 

Recording of a lecture delivered on June 14, 2017, by Matthew Reiner as part of the Graduate Institute Summer Lecture Series.

Recording of a lecture delivered on July 30, 2014, by Andrea Radasanu as part of the Graduate Institute Summer Lecture Series. 

Video recording of a lecture delivered by Jared Loggins on April 16, 2021, as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Mr. Loggins is an Assistant Professor of Black Studies and Political Science at Amherst University. His research and teaching interests are in black political thought, religious studies, and modern and contemporary democratic theory. He is about to publish his first book, which he co-au...

Recording of a lecture delivered on February 17, 2017, by Richard DeMillo as part of the Formal Lecture Series.

Recording of a lecture delivered by Mark Sinnett on November 30, 2018, as part of the Formal Lecture Series.

Recording of a lecture delivered on September 16, 2022, by Patrick Deneen as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Mr. Deneen is a professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, where he holds the David A. Potenziani Chair of Constitutional Studies. He is the author of Democratic Faith (Princeton University Press, 2005) and Why Liberalism Failed (Yale University Press, 2018).

Recording of a lecture delivered by Emily Wilson on October 19, 2018, as part of the Formal Lecture Series.   This lecture is also part of the Steiner Lecture Series, which is made possible by a gift from the Steiner family in memory of Andrew Steiner, an alumnus of the college from 1963. The lecture series was established to bring notable speakers to campus from a variety of disciplines and...

Recording of a lecture delivered on March 23, 2018, by Johanna Drucker as part of the Formal Lecture Series.

Recording of a lecture delivered on June 13, 2018, by John M. Peterson as part of the Graduate Institute Summer Lecture Series.

Recording of a lecture delivered on March 30, 2018, by Reviel Netz as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Netz's lecture is also part of the Steiner Lecture Series.

Recording of a lecture delivered on June 28, 2017, by Joseph Trullinger as part of the Graduate Institute Summer Lecture Series. Trullinger, an assistant professor at George Washington University, examines Leibniz, Kant and the philosophers’ emblematic responses to the problem of evil. He also explores Kant’s critique of his predecessor and discusses what he calls “contradictions” in Kant’s argume...

Recording of a lecture delivered by Arthur Melzer, Professor at Michigan State University, on November 1, 2019, as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Melzer describes his lecture topic as follows: "Is it true that most philosophers prior to 1800 concealed their true opinions behind a veneer of conventional pieties? What is the empirical evidence for this claim? What motives could have led so many...

Recording of a lecture delivered on September 19, 1997, by Elliott Zuckerman as part of the Formal Lecture Series.

Recording of a lecture delivered on April 8, 1988, by Jonathan Tuck as part of the Formal Lecture Series.

Recording of a lecture delivered on October 22, 1971, by Samuel S. Kutler as part of the Formal Lecture Series.

Recording of a lecture delivered on November 10, 2017, by Thomas May as part of the Formal Lecture Series.

Recording of a lecture delivered on March 25, 2016, by Vicki Mahaffey as part of the Formal Lecture Series.  Mahaffey's lecture is also part of the Steiner Lecture Series.   Dr. Mahaffey describes her lecture:  "Most of the time, readers who have difficulties with Ulysses complain that it is hard to understand. What I hope to demonstrate is that the greatest challenge the book prese...

Recording of a lecture delivered on August 25, 2017, by Joseph Macfarland as part of the Formal Lecture Series.  First formal lecture of the academic year, previously referred to as the "Dean's Lecture", but now called the "Christopher B. Nelson Lecture".