Lectures and concerts are free and open to the public

SANTA FE, NM [August 18, 2025] — St. John’s College has announced its fall Dean's Lecture and Concert Series. On Friday evenings, members of the St. John’s College community gather in the Great Hall to hear a lecture or concert 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 and major musicians to Santa Fe,” says St. John’s College President J. Walter Sterling. “I encourage all members of the community to join us for the lectures and performances this fall.”

All lectures and concerts are held at 7 p.m. in the Meem Library at St. John’s College, 1160 Camino de Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505, unless otherwise noted. They are free and open to the public. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. The full list of concerts and lectures is here: Dean’s Lecture and Concert Series on the Santa Fe Campus. Please visit this page for updates and lecture descriptions.

“The lecture series supplements our discussion-based program. It gives members of the community the opportunity to consider sustained arguments from scholars of diverse backgrounds across a wide variety of disciplines,” says Dean of the College Sarah Davis. “Attendees are invited to engage directly with the lecturer in the question period that follows, which is an integral and dynamic part of the event.”

The 2025 lectures are:

• August 29: Santa Fe Dean Sarah Davis will present the Dean’s Annual Opening Lecture, “Pulling Away from the Bank: Philosophy and Friendship in War and Peace.”
• September 5: Santa Fe tutor Phil LeCuyer will deliver the lecture “Arrays and Faces.”
• September 12: Santa Fe tutor John Cornell will deliver his lecture “Parody in Paradise: Dante Takes on Thomas Aquinas.”
• September 19: Dr. Daryl Haggard, astronomer and Associate Professor of Physics at McGill University, will deliver her lecture “Into the Deep: Imagining Supermassive Black Holes.”
• September 26: Qiu Lin (A15), Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Simon Fraser University, will deliver her lecture “How Can Shun Live Happily Thereafter?: Revisiting the Question of Filial Piety in Mencius 7A35.”
• October 3: Michael Davis, Professor of Philosophy at Sarah Lawrence College, will deliver his lecture “There’s No Place Like Home—in Plato’s Republic.”
• October 10: Hugh Liebert, Professor of Political Science at West Point, will deliver his lecture “An Introduction to Plutarch’s Lives.”
• October 24: David H. Miller, musicologist and Professor of Practice at UC Berkeley, will deliver his lecture “Time, memory, and a sense of home: Ernst Krenek’s elegies for Webern.”
• October 31: Claire Holley will perform a concert.
• November 7: Annapolis Assistant Dean Ronald Haflidson will deliver his lecture “What the heck is hell? Divine judgment in the Gospel of Matthew.”
• November 14: Erik Dempsey, Associate Professor of Instruction in the Departments of Government, Classics, and Religious Studies at the University of Texas, will deliver his lecture “St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans and the Problem of Original Sin.”
• December 5: Antoine Pageau-St-Hilaire, postdoctoral research fellow affiliated with Boston University, Oxford, and the University of Ottawa, will deliver his lecture “Play and Education in Plato’s Republic.”
• December 12: Erik Baker, Lecturer at Harvard University, will deliver his lecture “The Virtues of Technological Obsolescence: Day, Berry, Lo-Fi.”

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 Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Annapolis, Maryland, 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

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MEDIA CONTACT: Sara Luell, Senior Director of Communications and Operations, sara.luell(at)sjc.edu