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The depth and beauty of the great books reveal themselves when you slow down to give them the time they deserve
The depth and beauty of the great books reveal themselves when you slow down to give them the time they deserve
2026 Seminars (tentative)
2026 Seminars (tentative)
New seminars to be announced by November 28
New seminars to be announced by November 28
Mondays
Mondays
Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War
Mondays, January 2026 (TBD)
Seminar Leader: John Samples & Jason Happel
Homer, Iliad (continued from Oct 2025)
Mondays, Oct 6-Dec 29 8:00-9:30 pm ET
Seminar Leader: Christian Blood
Apollonius of Perga, Conic Sections
Mondays and Thursdays, (TBD) 1:00-2:15 pm ET
Seminar Leaders: Eric Stull & Esa Palosaari
Tuesdays
Tuesdays
Borges, Short Stories
Tuesdays, January 2026 3:00-4:30 pm ET
Seminar Leaders: Reynaldo Miranda & Miryam Bujanda
Chaucer, Canterbury Tales
Tuesdays, (TBD) 7:30-9:00 pm ET
Seminar Leaders: Denise Alquist and JJ Patton
Herodotus, Histories (continued from 2025)
Tuesdays, January 2026 8:00-9:30 pm ET
Seminar Leader: Eric Stull
Newman, Idea of a University, Part II (new)
Tuesdays, January 2026 9:00-10:30 pm ET
Seminar Leader: Reynaldo Miranda
Crosscurrents: Medieval Islamic Art & Poetry
(TBD) 8:00-9:30 pm ET
Seminar Leaders: Jeff Johnston & Justine Andrews
Listener's Studio: Bach
(TBD) 12:00-1:15 pm ET
Seminar Leader: Jeff Johnston
Wednesdays
Wednesdays
Plato, Republic (continued from 2025)
Wednesdays, January 2026 8:00-9:30 pm ET
Seminar Leaders: Eric Stull & Reynaldo Miranda
Shakespeare, Sonnets "Read Aloud"
(TBD)
Seminar Leaders: Reynaldo Miranda & Tim Pabon
Shakespeare, Henry V
Wednesdays, January 2026 2:00-3:30 pm ET
Seminar Leader: Eric Stull
Listener's Studio:
Wednesdays, (TBD)
Seminar Leader: Jeff Johnston
Thursdays
Thursdays
Aristotle, Politics Book V (continued from 2025)
Thursdays, 2:00 pm EST
Seminar Leader: Reynaldo Miranda
Exodus (continued from 2025)
Thursdays, January 2026 8:00-9:30 pm ET
Seminar Leaders: Reynaldo Miranda & Jason Happel
New Offering
Thursdays, January 2026 7:00-8:30 pm ET
Seminar Leaders: Randy Wootton
Fridays
Fridays
Popular Scottish and English Poets (6 sessions Burns & Keats)
Fridays, January 2026 4:30-6:00 pm ET
Seminar Leader: Jason Happel
Sundays
Sundays
On the Socratic Education: Plato's Shorter Dialogues
Sundays, January 2026 10:00-11:30 am ET
Seminar Leader: Jason Happel
Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed (continued from 2025)
Sundays, January 2026 10:30-11:55 am ET
Seminar Leader: Jess Joseph
You may register for a program until the day before it begins (if it is not fully enrolled.) All-Access registration includes all Symposium seminars each quarter.
We read and discuss compelling books -- and musical and artistic works -- in the spirit of collaborative inquiry.
Deep Reading Seminars (books, mathematics, music)
Deep Reading Seminars (books, mathematics, music)
(Twelve to twenty-four weeks.) Reading Pathways are the heart and soul of Symposium. We call them slow-reading pathways because a particular book (or collection of poems, essays, or musical pieces) can be a lighted pathway through a dark wood or out of a cave. It can be a sea journey back home (Homer's Odyssey) or a fantastic adventure out of the library into the world (Cervantes, Don Quixote). Books like Euclid's Elements, no less than Plato's Republic, Aristotle's Ethics, Thucydides's Peloponnesian War, Maimonides's Guide, Rousseau's Emile, Montesquieu's Laws, or Hegel's Phenomenology (to drop a few names) are curricular, or courses in themselves, and they take more than a few weeks to understand.
Shorter Seminars
Shorter Seminars
(Six session seminars for a lower cost) Short seminars are our lures, designed (a) to dig into a short work or poem, (b) to compare two works or authors, or (c) to touch on connections between a source-text and the branches that extend outward: from Homer to Vergil, or Plutarch to Shakespeare.
(FREE) Curious about what we do? Symposium will offer free events and talks throughout the year.
Capable seminar leaders gently guide our discussions; thoughtful participants share in the inquiry.
Symposium Institute is supported by tuition and donations, which allows us to offer free programs regularly and keep the ship sailing.
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"It is difficult to get the news from poems, yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.”
William Carlos Williams
1883-1963, American Poet
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