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COMMUNITYCALENDAR

ST. JOHN’S COLLEGESANTA FE, NEW MEXICO VOL. 4.13

JULY/AUGUST 2013

In this Issue:Dean’s Lecture and Concert Series

Summer Lecture Series, Bread Loaf Lecture, Community

Seminars, Concerts, Theatre, Bookstore

Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE,

ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

Music on the Hill 2013Wednesday evening concerts in July

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DEAN’S LECTURE AND CONCERT SERIESPlease join us for the beginning of the fall 2013 Dean’s Lecture and Concert Series. All lectures are free and open to the public and are followed by a question-and-answer period.

Opening Lecture Friday, August 30, 7:30 p.m.Great Hall, Peterson Student CenterWalter Sterling, Dean, St. John’s College, Santa Fe

St. John’s College Dean Walter Sterling will offer the first lecture of the fall2013 series.

Walter Sterling, dean since June 2011, earned his bachelor of arts degree in1993 from St. John’s College, Annapolis, and master of arts degree in philoso-phy in 1997 from Emory University. He held academic positions at LoyolaCollege, Gwynedd-Mercy College, and Temple University, and also workedwith Project H.O.M.E. (Philadelphia) before joining the faculty of St. John’sCollege, Santa Fe, in 2003.

SUMMER LECTURE SERIESJoin us for the continuation of this series of informal lectures, sponsored by the college’s Graduate Institute. Free and open to the public, each lecture isfollowed by a question-and-answer period.

Is the Soul a City?Jacques Duvoisin, tutor, St. John’s College, Santa FeWednesday, July 3, 3:15 p.m.Junior Common Room, Peterson Student CenterIn what ways is Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics a response to Plato, especiallyto ideas proposed by Socrates in the Republic, but also, to a lesser extent, inthe Meno? To the extent that Aristotle is right to think a moral psychology(in which the question of human happiness is properly raised) is the provinceof the statesman, one ought to say that the soul cannot be thought in isola-tion from the city. But Aristotle also thinks the achievement of happiness in perfect friendship, or in the perfect habituation to particular virtues, exceeds the limits of the city, and thereby suggests that the soul is, in impor-tant respects, not coterminous with the city. Moreover, since the question ofhappiness seems not to be bounded by the limit of death for both Plato andAristotle, a moral psychology may also not be fathomable simply in terms of an individual or simply in terms of a city, but also (and perhaps most profoundly) in terms of a much greater whole, the cosmos. Jacques Antoine Duvoisin received a bachelor of arts degree in 1980 from St. John’s College, Annapolis, and went on to earn a master of arts and a doctorate in 1984 and 1992, respectively, from The Catholic University ofAmerica. Before joining the faculty of St. John’s College, Santa Fe, he was aKnights of Columbus Fellow (1981-1984) and a visiting fellow in the Universityof London’s School for Advanced Studies, Institute of Philosophy.

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Theories of Economic Value – Why they’re Not BoringWilliam Kerr, tutor, St. John’s College, Santa FeWednesday, July 10, 3:15 p.m.Junior Common Room, Peterson Student Center What constitutes or determines the “value” of a good or service? There hasbeen little consensus on this topic among economic thinkers over the years.To a large extent, this has been due to the differing uses to which writers havewished to put the concept of value. However, the various theories advancedhave had one thing in common: they have tended to insulate questions abouteconomic value from considerations of the nature of value in broader senses.

In recent decades, this has changed. Economic value theory, with all its practical and theoretical implications, has become inextricably bound upwith deeper philosophical issues of value. This lecture will focus on the pre-suppositions of contemporary economic thought on the subject. Audiencemembers will be responsible for suggesting alternative viewpoints.

Before joining the faculty of St. John’s College in 1989, William Kerr held academic positions at the University of New Mexico-Los Alamos and the University of Colorado-Boulder. He received a bachelor of science degree from

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Oklahoma State University in 1974 and a master of science degree in economicsfrom the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1976. He pursued fur-ther graduate study in economics at the University of Chicago and earned amaster of arts degree in classics from the University of Colorado-Boulder in1985. Further graduate study in ancient philosophy at Trinity Hall, Cambridge,preceded a one-year Reynolds Fellowship. Mr. Kerr earned a certificate in theChinese Language Education Program at Providence University, in Shalu, Taiwan, in 1998.

Hobbesian ProvidenceJay Smith, tutor, St. John’s College, Santa FeWednesday, July 17, 3:15 p.m.Junior Common Room, Peterson Student CenterWhat role does Hobbes’s theological critique play in his political science?And why does Hobbes call his Sovereign a “Mortal God”? To begin to respondto these questions, the lecture will look at the last parts of “The Leviathan”—that is, the parts dealing with his (re)interpretation of scripture and his critique of “The Kingdom of Darkness.”

Jay Smith earned his bachelor of arts degree from St. John’s College, Santa Fe,in 1977, a master of arts degree in philosophy from Marquette University in 1979,and a doctorate in philosophy from Fordham University in 2002. Before joiningthe St. John’s faculty in 2001, Mr. Smith worked for the Environmental Protec-tion Agency and also as an environmental consultant.

Levan Lecture: Feminism and the “New” Ampersand ProblemReginald Williams, chair, department of philosophy, Bakersfield CollegeWednesday, July 24, 3:15 p.m.Junior Common Room, Peterson Student CenterElizabeth Spelman coined the term “Ampersand Problem” to describe the fact that feminists have long been accused of ignoring or trivializing unique,non-reducible experiences and forms of oppression that, for instance, Blackwomen and lesbians endure. The idea is that being a Black woman or lesbian ismore than a “sum of its parts.”

In this lecture, Reginald Williams highlights, and pursues the significance of, an additional Ampersand Problem: the fact that feminists and other oppressed groups tend to critique each other and to oppose each other’s inter-ests, instead of uniting in solidarity in opposition to a unique, non-reduciblegroup that oppresses them in society. This small group, whose members aremore than a sum of their parts, consists of Caucasian-Heterosexual-Economi-cally Privileged-Able Bodied Men. Professor Williams urges feminists andother oppressed groups to recognize their overlapping disadvantage in societyand to join in resisting the pervasive advantage of this small group.

Reggie Williams is professor and chair of philosophy at Bakersfield College,where he has taught since 2002. He holds a doctorate in philosophy from theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He writes and publishes on arange of social issues, including abortion, racial profiling, affirmative action,and same-sex marriage.

All the world’s a stage, and all the men andwomen merely players... — WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, AS YOU LIKE IT

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Similarity and Equality in Euclid and ApolloniusMichael N. Fried, associate professor, Program for Science and Technology Education, Ben-Gurion University of the NegevWednesday, July 31, 3:15 p.m.Junior Common Room, Peterson Student CenterIn this lecture, Michael Fried will look at how Euclid and Apollonius under-stand the notions of “similarity” and “equality” as well as the additional notion of “equal-and-similar” (isos te kai homoios). He would like to showthat in certain key ways their conception of these notions is fundamentallydifferent from the general modern view; in particular, it reflects an emphasison geometrical objects rather than on the space in which they are contained. In this way, Professor Fried believes considerations of similarity and equalityprovide hints of broader aspects of Greek geometry, including the idea oflocus (topos). He will refer to Euclid’s Elements and Apollonius’ Conics, especially, Book VI. If time allows, he may also refer briefly to Euclid’s Data.

Michael N. Fried is associate professor in the Program for Science and Technol-ogy Education at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. His undergraduate degree in the liberal arts is from St. John’s College, Annapolis, where he readthe “great books” -- books he still reads and loves. He received his master ofscience degree in applied mathematics from SUNY at Stony Brook and his doctorate in the history of mathematics from the Cohn Institute at Tel AvivUniversity. In addition to papers in mathematics education, which are eclecticand include mathematics pedagogy, mathematics teacher education, sociocul-tural issues, and semiotics, Professor Fried has written three books connectedto the history of mathematics: Apollonius of Perga’s Conica: Text, Context,Subtext (with Sabetai Unguru) (Brill, 2001); Apollonius of Perga, Conics IV:Translation, Introduction, and Diagrams (Green Lion Press, 2002); and Edmond Halley’s Reconstruction of the Lost Book of Apollonius’s Conics(Springer, 2011).

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BREAD LOAF LECTURELife, Land, and PhotographyLee Marmon, photographerTuesday, July 2, 7 p.m.Great Hall, Peterson Student CenterInternationally acclaimed photographer Lee Marmon, a member of LagunaPueblo, will present a new film about his life, land, and photographic work. Named a “Living Legend” at the 2009 Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial, Marmon has amassed a portfolio consisting of thousands ofblack-and-white images, a striking visual chronicle of the last generation ofNative Americans to live by their traditional ways and values.Lee Marmon’s many other awards and honors include an ADDY Award for contributing to the Peabody Award-winning PBS-TV documentary, “Surviving Columbus,” a Lifetime Achievement Award from the SouthwestAssociation of Indian Arts, and the Kantuta Award from the Czech Ministryof Culture for promoting cross-cultural understanding with his photography.The Bread Loaf School of English, a graduate program of Middlebury College, offers courses in literature, writing, and the teaching of writing at St. John's College in the summer.

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COMMUNITY SEMINARSCommunity Seminars are special opportunities for community members to read and discuss seminal works in the same unique manner as do our students. Seminars are discussion based and small in size in order to ensurespirited dialogue. There are topics to pique every interest, and for many par-ticipants the discussion-based learning model is an entirely new experience. To register for any of the seminars described below, please call 505-984-6117or use our online registration form [click HERE]. Teachers with proof of em-ployment can enroll in a Community Seminar at a 50 percent discount. Com-munity Seminars are free to 11th and 12th grade high school students (limitedspaces available).

Kierkegaard’s Stages on Life’s WayTutor: Richard McCombsDates/Times: Six Tuesdays, September 10 through October 15, 6:30-8:30 p.m.Cost: $210Stages on Life’s Way, by Sören Kierkegaard, investigates the logic of per-sonal, spiritual growth. Kierkegaard conducts his investigation by creatingvarious characters who tell and interpret stories from their own lives so as either to praise romantic love for its joys and ennobling struggles or to blameit for its sorrows and illusions. Mr. McCombs recently published a book entitled The Paradoxical Rationality of Sören Kierkegaard.

Michael Ondaatje, Part I: In the Skin of a LionTutor: Lise van BoxelDates/Times: Three Tuesdays, September 17 through October 1, 7-9 p.m.Cost: $105How do you distinguish poetry from prose? If you think you have resolvedthis question, Michael Ondaatje’s work should change your mind. He is notwedded to conventional sentence structure; he is not interested in providingthe reader with a continuous narrative. Rather, he arouses the reader’s imagi-nation and passions with vivid descriptions and musical phrases so as to pullthe reader into the experience and perspective of his characters.Ondaatje uses the main character of In the Skin of a Lion, Patrick Lewis, as akind of fulcrum that unifies various vignettes about the immigrant workerswho laid the foundations for a metropolis. Lewis is intent upon saving theseworkers, who contributed so much to the city, from anonymity. By means ofhis quest, we are given the chance to dwell imaginatively in the lives of theseworkers. What might seem to be a tale of social and political justice is per-haps, in the end, a story about love. More precisely, it is the story of a lover.The mood of In the Skin of a Lion is akin to that of a beautiful daydream. This novel is the precursor to Ondaatje’s Booker Prize-winning novel, The English Patient, which pulled Ondaatje into the mainstream of publicconsciousness when it was made into a film that won nine Academy Awards,including Best Picture.

Michael Ondaatje, Part II: Coming Through SlaughterTutor: Lise van BoxelDates/Times: Three Tuesdays, October 8 through October 22, 7-9 p.m.Cost: $105If you missed the boat for “Michael Ondaatje, Part I,” but would like to joinus now, we welcome you aboard for “Michael Ondaatje, Part II: ComingThrough Slaughter.” Ondaatje’s fruitful disregard for prose structure, his

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intermingling of prose and poetic forms, and his vivid depiction of sensoryexperiences are fully manifest in this book. Coming Through Slaughter is a biography about Buddy Bolden, one of thegreatest trumpet players (cornet, to be precise) and arguably the first jazzmusician. There are no recordings of Bolden’s horn playing. He appears inonly one photograph. Bolden was opposed to permanence, and Ondaatje’sstyle is perfectly suited to communicating this opposition. Bolden’s world isfluid, visceral, punctuated by lust, violence, and profound moments of emotional intimacy. The world you enter in this book is not one of politeconversation and teatime sandwiches without crusts. It is a world of sweatand grit—raw, quick-paced, often brutal. It is the world of the early Jazz Age;it reads like jazz; it is a heck of a ride!

The Novels of Jane Austen, Part ITutor: Mike BybeeDates/Times: Five Wednesdays, September 18 through October 16, 7-9 p.m.Cost: $175Superficially Jane Austen severely limited the scope of her novels to narrowsocial interactions—yet, she managed somehow to subject her society to acritical appraisal, the power of which we can hardly overstate. She managedthis effect by subverting her audience’s narrative expectations and by deploying a delicious albeit subtle irony verging on sarcasm—among otherstrategies. Two centuries later, however, we live with enormously differentnarrative expectations, in a time of palpably increasing democratic and social tolerance. Thus, we might well wonder what value these novels’ critical, reflective, and reflexive lessons might have for us about oppression,misogyny, financial inequity, and intellectual elitism. What is the locus ofmorality? What constitutes the authentic moral fabric of a society? We willexplore these questions and more in our discussions of Northanger Abbey,Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility. In the spring, we will complete the canon with Mansfield Park, Emma, and Persuasion.

Three Early Films by Terrence Malick:Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red LineTutor: David CarlDates/Times: Friday, November 22, 7-9 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, November 23 and 24, 10 a.m.-noonCost: $105Malick’s Tree of Life exploded on the movie world in 2011 when it won thePalme d’Or in Cannes and was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director,and Best Cinematography for the 2012 Academy Awards. In the interna-tional film magazine Sight and Sound, 16 critics voted Tree of Life one of the10 greatest films ever made in, and it was ranked as one of the 100 greatestfilms ever made in the magazine’s overall poll.But before Tree of Life, Malick made a series of movies that first establishedhis reputation as one of America’s most important filmmakers. Badlands(1973), Days of Heaven (1978), and, after a 20-year hiatus, The Thin RedLine (1998) marked Malick as one of the most original and searching inde-pendent directors in the United States. We will spend the weekend chartingthe formal and thematic development of the first 25 years of Malick’s careerto better understand the artist who produced Tree of Life 13 years later.Please view all three of these films on your own before attending class. We will only watch various scenes from the movies to facilitate discussion.

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LUNCHTIME CONCERTWorks of RavelTuesday, July 23, 12:30-1:15 p.m.Junior Common RoomPeterson Student CenterPeter Pesic, pianoThere is no charge for admission.Tutor and musician-in-residence Peter Pesic will give an informal lunchtimeconcert, featuring Ravel’s Pavane, Sonatine, and Miroirs. Peter Pesic is a tutor and musician-in-residence at St. John’s College, SantaFe. He attended Harvard and Stanford Universities, obtaining a doctorate in physics. He has been named a Fellow of the American Association for theAdvancement of Science, the American Physical Society, and the John SimonGuggenheim Memorial Foundation. Mr. Pesic is also a visiting scholar atHarvard University.

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MUSIC ON THE HILL™ Celebrating its eighth season, Music on theHill™ has rapidly become a signature SantaFe summer event. St. John’s College wouldlike to thank the Santa Fe community andthe concert series’ lead sponsors—LosAlamos National Bank, Verve Gallery, Santa Fe Properties Luxury Market Group,Barraclough and Associates, Chalmers Capitol Ford Lincoln, KSFR, and the Santa Fean—for supporting our annualevent. From early June to late July, local and nationally known musiciansoffer free weekly Wednesday evening concerts in a wide range of jazz styles.

Concerts take place on the college’s athletic field, from 6 to 8 p.m. Parkingis limited, and concertgoers are encouraged to take the free shuttle fromMuseum Hill. Concertgoers may picnic on the field. Food is available forpurchase from Walter Burke Catering, and water and soft drinks can be purchased from Sprouts Farmers Market. (For parking options, informationabout the shuttle, and our cancellation-due-to-weather policy, visit theMusic on the Hill webpage. For details, click HERE.

Please note that NO PETS are allowed on campus, and that bicycles must beparked in designated areas.

THIS YEAR’S MUSIC ON THE HILL™ CONCERTS CONTINUE IN JULY WITH THE FOLLOWING PERFORMANCES:

July 10Janice and Vinnie ZummoJazz Vocals and Guitar

July 17John Proulx QuartetNat “King” Cole and More

July 24NosotrosLatin Jazz

This project is made possible in part by New Mexico Arts, a division of theDepartment of Cultural Affairs, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,

Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,

Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,

With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:

There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,

Lull'd in these f lowers with dances and delight;

And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,

Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:

— WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

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ALL FOR YOUR DELIGHTAn Enchanting Medley of Scenes and Songs from Shakespeare’sMost Popular ComediesFriday through Sunday, August 16 through 18, 7:30 p.m.Center of campus above fish-pond placita$20 in advance ($12 for students)Enjoy an evening under the stars as agifted ensemble of actors and musiciansperform highlights from A MidsummerNight’s Dream, As You Like It, Pericles,The Taming of the Shrew, and other classics. Presented by Shakespeare inSanta Fe and the Shakespeare Guild, theperformances are devised and directedby Nagle Jackson and produced byRachel Kelly and John F. Andrews.

Pre-show music begins at 6:30 p.m., and picnic items are available for purchase.

Seating is by advance ticket purchase only. Call 505-988-1234 or visitwww.TicketsSantaFe.org. For more details, call 505-231-0190 or visitwww.shakesguid.org/events.html.

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Letters to a Young ScientistEdward O. Wilson

Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for ThinkingDaniel C. Dennett

Hitler's PhilosophersYvonne Sherratt

Ancient Greece: from Prehistoric to Hellenistic TimesThomas R. Martin

Book of Barely Imagined BeingsCaspar Henderson

VISIT THE ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE BOOKSTORE

>SUMMER HOURSMonday 8:30-7

Tuesday 8:30-6

Wednesday 8:30-6

Thursday 8:30-7

Friday 8:30-5

Closed Saturday

Sunday 12-6

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