Summer Classics

 

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“Tackling a new or favorite text with kindred spirits and thoughtful, inclusive tutors is transforming in every way.” —Summer Classics participant

Great Discussions on Great Books, Online or In Person

Summer Classics 2024 July dates will be available in February 2024. Check back in 2024 or join our mailing list to receive program updates.

Summer Classics is a 30-year-old seasonal program conceived in the spirit of lifelong learning. Our seminar rooms, whether actual or virtual, provide the space to engage in rigorous conversations on timeless works.

A Summer Classics seminar is not a lecture, nor is it a book club. At St. John’s, seminars are lively, in-depth, and highly participatory conversations on enduring works that span fiction and nonfiction, math and science, poetry and philosophy, as well as visual, cinematic, and performing arts. Beyond the learning that takes place through the works and with one another in seminar, attendees describe their experience as “transformational” and “restorative.”
For registration inquiries please email classics(at)sjc.edu.

 

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What Participants Are Saying About Summer Classics

Coming out of a Summer Classics seminar is like having taken a daily mental shower.”

It was a refreshing deep dive into philosophical discussion and debate with similarly curious lifelong learners of all ages.”

Wonderful opportunity to explore the human condition and life's big mysteries via the great books. Equally appropriate for someone reading them for the first time or revisiting a favorite from their past.”

The Summer Classic experience is a wonderful combination of deep learning about a text and a social gathering of serious learners.”

Summer Classics is in intellectually invigorating kaleidoscope affording you time to slow down to enjoy a prism of ideas that emerge from a discourse with an author, a text, and other likeminded individuals from all over the world.”

The format is very conducive to substantive discussion. There is nothing as wonderful as reading something substantial and the discovery that comes from discussing it with thoughtful people, with the group pushed and challenged by our tutors to go deep.”