In this Issue:Summer Lecture Series,Concerts, Theatre, Summer Classics, Film Institute, Greek Institute,

COMMUNITYCALENDAR

ST. JOHN’S COLLEGESANTA FE, NEW MEXICO VOL. 3.14

MAY/JUNE 2014

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FIFTY YEARS OF ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE IN SANTA FE

As experienced through the original works of the world’s greatthinkers, artists, and scientists, a St. John’s education isfounded on radical and innovative inquiry into questions thatare fundamental to human life. Students pursue this educationthrough thoughtful, lively, and participant-driven conversa-tions unconfined within the limits of specialized fields. Theyconfront important ideas for themselves—ponder, discuss, cri-tique, and think beyond them. Students are invited to join acommunity of learners in Annapolis, Maryland and Santa Fe,New Mexico who are curious and passionate about the ideasthat have shaped the world in which they live. They graduatewith the ability to think boldly, collaborate effectively, and ex-plore fearlessly, ready for any path they choose.

In addition to the undergraduate program, St. John’s Collegeoffers graduate degree programs based on these same princi-ples: the Master of Arts in Liberal Arts, on both campuses, and the Master of Arts in Eastern Classics, on the Santa Fecampus.

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FIRST GRADUATING CLASS WEIGLE HALL

St. John’s College, SantaFe celebrates its first commencement ceremony.

1968

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1971

• A ribbon cutting ceremonytakes place for the newly built administrative servicesbuilding known as the “TowerBuilding” and later renamedWeigle Hall.

THE GRADUATE INSTITUTE ESTABLISHED

1967

• Originally called the“Teachers Institute in Liberal Education,” theGraduate Institute officially opens.

GROUNDBREAKING

Ground is broken in April for the Santa Fe Campus. Seventeen months later inSeptember 1964, the Collegewelcomes the first class of 88 freshmen: 55 men and 33 women.

1963

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SUMMER CLASSICSEASTERN CLASSICS PROGRAM

Originally called "TheInstitute for the Studyof the Eastern Classics,"the Eastern ClassicsProgram begins throughthe Graduate Institute.

The Summer Classics Program is established, bringing the St. John’s College experience to a wider community.

1992

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1993

•Named after famed architect andcampus founder John Gaw Meem,the Meem Library opens. Mr. Meemgenerously donated the land onwhich the College sits.

MEEM LIBRARY1990

•Master of Arts

in Eastern ClassicsSt. John’s College

St. John’s College is celebrating the 50th anniversary of thefounding of the Santa Fe campus. It was a bold and visionarymove to establish a campus in Santa Fe, offering our distinc-tive, and in many ways radical academic program to more students, and demonstrating conclusively that the St. John’sprogram has no geographic or cultural bounds. The 50th An-niversary is an opportunity to celebrate this important step inthe history of St. John’s College. It will serve as a reminder of the lives and communities changed by the college and its distinctive, integrated academic program. From June 2014 to June 2015, the Santa Fe campus will host special events and programs celebrating its 50th anniversary. For more information, visit www.sjc.edu.

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SUMMER LECTURE SERIESJoin us for a series of informal lectures, sponsored by the college’s Graduate Institute. Beginning on Wednesday, June 18, the series continues for six consec-utive Wednesday afternoons, concluding July 23. Free and open to the public,each lecture is followed by a question-and-answer period.

July lecturers include novelist, poet, and essayist N. Scott Momaday; MarciLingo of Bakersfield College; and St. John’s College tutors Jacques Duvoisin andJay Smith.

What Hegel’s Reading of Newton Teaches us about Newton, Nature, and SpiritWednesday, June 18, 3:15 p.m.Junior Common Room, Peterson Student CenterJohn Anders, doctoral candidate in economics, Texas A&M University

Hegel’s reading of Newton can be seen as a detailed working out of some problems inherent in the way Newton proceeds in Prop. 1 of the Principia.In particular, Hegel shows that Newton is wrong to think of centripetal andcentrifugal forces as separate, independent things; a complete account of plan-etary motions must include whatever third reality underlies both centrifugaland centripetal forces. Hegel’s reading of Newton also forms part of the transition from Consciousness to Self-Consciousness. Accordingly, when we understand the problems Hegel finds in Newton, we can better understandhow a natural philosopher is always investigating her own consciousness evenas she thinks that she is investigating a world that is entirely other than her consciousness.

After graduating from St. John’s College, Santa Fe, in 2003, John Andersearned a master of arts in philosophy and in the history and philosophy of science at the University of Pittsburgh. He then worked as an adjunct instructorat the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, while his wife earned her doctorate inEnglish literature there. Anders also recently earned a master of arts in economics from UNLV. While working on his degree, he published articles on issues in Aristotle, the history of mathematics, and logic. In fall 2014, Anderswill start a doctorate in economics at Texas A&M University. Aside from his academic responsibilities, John tries to balance child rearing with his love ofhiking, bristlecone pines, and keyboard polyphony. Usually the two year oldtips the scales.

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Nagarjuna's Imperishable Promissory NoteWednesday, June 25, 3:15 p.m.Junior Common Room, Peterson Student CenterApril Olsen, doctoral candidate, Tulane University

Nagarjuna was a 2nd century Indian Buddhist philosopher who articulated thedoctrine of emptiness (shunyata) and is traditionally regarded as the founder ofthe Madhyamika (“Middle Way”) school, an important tradition of MahayanaBuddhist philosophy.

After graduating from Notre Dame in 2000, April Olsen spent a decade teachingmiddle and high school in inner-city Chicago and in rural San Diego County.She received a master of arts in liberal arts from St. John’s College in January2012, earning rare honors for her master’s oral, “The Philosopher-Physician ofNietzsche's The Antichrist.” In August of that year, she earned a master of artsin Eastern classics, also from St. John’s. She currently is a philosophy doctoralstudent at Tulane University, where she is teaching undergraduate classes inBuddhism. Her academic interests include the psychology of punishment inPlato and Nietzsche and comparisons with Eastern thought.

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BREAD LOAF LECTURESThe Bread Loaf School of English, a graduate program of Middlebury College, has been offering courses in literature, writing, and the teaching of writing at St. John's College for more than a dozen summers. The courses are augmented by lectures by distinguished artists and writers, which are free and open to the public.

Luci Tapahonso, Navajo Poet LaureateTuesday, June 24, 7 p.m.Junior Common RoomPeterson Student Center

Kylene Beers, Former President, National Council of TeachersTuesday, July 1, 7 p.m.Junior Common RoomPeterson Student Center

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Music is a moral law. It gives soul to

the universe, wings to the mind, flight

to the imagination, and charm and

gaiety to life and to everything.

— Plato

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LUNCHTIME CONCERT

Chopin and DebussyPeter Pesic, pianoFriday, May 9, 12:10 – 1:15 p.m.Junior Common RoomPeterson Student CenterThere is no charge for admission

Peter Pesic continues his tour of music of the 20th century with a program thatfeatures Debussy’s Mazurka (1891), Valse romantique (1890), Masques (1904), L’isle joyeuse (1904), and Images book I (1905), and Chopin’s Ballade in F minor, op. 52.

Peter Pesic is a tutor emeritus and musi-cian in residence at St. John’s College,Santa Fe. He attended Harvard and Stanford, obtaining a doctorate inphysics. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He also is a visiting scholar at Harvard University.

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Farm HallWednesday, May 7, 7 p.m.James A. Little Theatre

Free, but RSVPs requested: http://tinyurl.com/farmhall

The American Institute of Physics’ Center for History of Physics presents a staged reading by St. John’s College students of Farm Hall, a new play be David Cassidy, the distinguished historianand writer.

It’s July 1945. Germany is in defeat and the atomicbombs are on their way to Japan. Under the directionof Samuel Goudsmit, the Allies are holding some of the top German nuclear scientists—among themHeisenberg, Hahn, and Gerlach—captive in FarmHall, an English country manor near Cambridge,England. As secret microphones record their conver-sations, the scientists are unaware of why they arebeing held or for how long. Thinking themselves farahead of the Allies, how will they react to the news ofthe atomic bombs? How will these famous scientists explain to themselves andto the world their failure to achieve even a chain reaction? How will they cometo terms with the horror of the Third Reich, their work for such a regime, andtheir behavior during that period? This one-act play, directed by Rory Gilchrist(SF16), is based upon the transcripts of these conversations as well as the author’s historical work on the subject. The reading will be following by an audience discussion.

David C. Cassidy is a sciencehistorian and professor ofnatural science at HofstraUniversity. He is author ofUncertainty and Beyond Uncertainty.

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Celebrating its ninth season, Music on the Hill™ is a signatureSanta Fe summer event. St. John’s College would like to thankthe Santa Fe community and the concert series’ lead sponsors—Los Alamos National Bank, Verve Gallery, Chalmers CapitolFord—for supporting our annual event. From early June to lateJuly, local and nationally known musicians offer free weeklyWednesday-evening concerts in a wide range of jazz styles.

Concerts take place on the college’s athletic field from 6 to 8 p.m.Parking is available close to campus, and a free shuttle runs between Museum Hill and the college’s athletic field. For details,click here [link to MOTH web page]. Concertgoers may picnic onthe field. Food and water and sodas are available for purchasefrom Walter Burke Catering.

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

THE SUMMER 2014 LINEUP IS:

June 11

Bert Dalton’s Brazil Project

June 18

Brian WingardJazz Saxophone

June 25

Clairdee, with Dmitri MathenyJazz Vocals and Flugelhorn

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

July 9

Annie SellickJazz Standards

July 16

SuperSax New Mexico

July 23

ManzanaresNuevo Latino

Unlock new realms of thought in the words of Western Civiliza-tion’s greatest authors and in the company of inquiring mindsaround the seminar table.

Join us for Summer Classics in Santa Fe

Week I: July 7-11Week II: July 14-18Week III: July 21-25

Summer Classics in Santa Fe has been expanded to more than twenty seminarsover the course of three weeks, representing a wide range of topics. Participantscan choose among seminars on works by philosophers Augustine, Descartes,Montesquieu, Nietzsche, Plato, Plutarch, and Schopenhauer; the Buddha andSufi master Ibn al-‘Arabi; novelists Conrad, Eliot, Faulkner, Forster, andProust; short-story authors Munro and O’Connor; poets Dante, Milton, andWhitman; playwright Shakespeare; and naturalist Eugene Marais.

Summer Classics participants are invited to explore the vibrancy of historicSanta Fe and attend cultural events, including St. John’s College Music on the Hill™, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and the world-renownedSanta Fe Opera.

The complete schedule for Summer Classics 2014 and seminar details can befound here HERE.

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NEW THIS YEAR…AN EXTRAWEEK OF HOMERIC GREEK!

Introducing this year…an extra weekof Homeric Greek! The Graduate Institute in Santa Fe would like to callyour attention to the summer Greek Institute, a multi-week course in an-cient Greek. This summer we haveadded a ninth week and changed ourpacing to that of an “accelerated”course. Intensive language programsacross the country are known for theirhigh attrition rate (often around 50%)and extreme stress: that is why theGreek Institute is not an “intensive.”While our program still will require an enormous amount of workand dedication and will necessarilyentail memorization, drills, quizzes,and tests, it also will leave space forparticipants to appreciate the uniqueopportunities of a Santa Fe summer,from afternoon lectures here at St. John’s to the Santa Fe Opera. Inshort, the extra week in this sum-mer’s program is meant to facilitate

a more humane, healthier pace, aswell as an even deeper immersion inthis beautiful language.

The aim of this course is to prepareparticipants to read in classic Homeric Greek works. It also will pre-pare graduate students attendingother institutions to pass a languageexam in Ancient Greek. The course’sgrammar text will be Homeric Greek,4th edition, by Pharr, Wright, andDebnar. (Note that earlier editionswill not suffice.) Following the com-pletion of the grammar component,participants will immerse themselvesin a careful reading of selections from the Iliad and Odyssey. Thisyear’s tutors will be Llyd Wells andAlan Zeitlin, veterans from last year’s inaugural program. Returning as well will be popular assistant Thomas Conroy.

Classes will be small, allowing each individual more time to learn. No previous experience in Greek is necessary to apply.

June 9 – August 7, 2014

Tuition for summer 2014 is $2,900, considerably lower than tuition for comparable study at other institutions. On-campus room and board is available at very reasonable rates. For further information, please contact Zoe Haskell at 505-984-6050 or GreekInstitute@sjc.edu.

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There’s still a chance to partici-pate in the inaugural summer of the St. John’s College Film Institute. Although the first deadline has passed,the initial call for applications met withsuch a wonderful response that to accom-modate the many requests, we have decided to start a waiting list of partici-pants for a second section of the Institute.This new section also welcomes part-timeparticipants: people interested in takingonly the seminar or the tutorial segmentsof the Institute, or people only able to attend for some portion of the full course.Pricing will be adjusted accordingly. Theapplication deadline for this new sectionof the Film Institute is April 11, and thedeadline for full tuition is May 1.

Applications can be found atwww.sjc.edu/gradprograms/sf_film.shtml. For further information, please contact Zoe Haskell at 505-984-6050 orfilminstitute@sjc.edu.

What is the Film Institute? It is aneight-week program approaching greatworks of cinema as visual poetry, bringingthe St. John’s approach to this modernart form. Each week focuses on a great director, spanning the 1920s to the 1970s.The program also will feature lecturesand workshops by film industry profes-sionals to help students develop a deeperunderstanding of the technical aspects offilmmaking. With nightly classes, filmshowings at local cinemas, and tutorialson works of film analysis (frequentlywritten by the directors themselves), thisprogram will attempt to approach allsides of film as a liberal art, exploring itsunique status as visual communication intime and its contribution to the ideas ofour culture. The Film Institute will betaught by David Carl and KrishnanVenkatesh, among other tutors. Classeswill be small, allowing each individualmore time to learn.

Tuition for full-time study (eight-week program) is $4,900. On-campus room andboard is available.

JUNE 15 – AUGUST 8 , 2014 | SANTA FE

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www.sjc.edu