Upcoming Online Events
The Agora Foundation is a nonsectarian 501(c)3 non-profit endeavor, providing great books seminars and other educational opportunities to those who are busy with careers, families, and daily responsibilities yet are seeking to further their education. The goal of these offerings is to provide an understanding of the ideas that shape civilizations and to promote civil discourse on complicated subjects. The Agora Foundation has facilitated over 1,000 great books seminars and teacher trainings, covering a wide variety of topics including literature, philosophy, political science, theology, history, art, psychology, and more, featuring ancient and modern texts from around the world. In addition to seminars, since 2014 Agora has produced 35 panels, gatherings, and video interviews, promoting civil discourse on controversial and complicated subjects. Hundreds of these events can be freely viewed and listened to on this website.
Generously funded by The Ahmanson Foundation, Southern California Edison, The Shanbrom Family Foundation, the Ventura County Community Foundation, the WRG Foundation, the Constance Eaton and William Hart Fund, the Ojai Valley Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club of Ojai, CIty of Ojai, and private donations, the Teachers for Lifelong Learning Program provides training to high school teachers in this engaging approach to learning, and The Ojai Chautauqua provides panels promoting civil discourse on controversial and complicated subjects.
Upcoming Regular Events
Online Seminar Series
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
Wednesday, January 22
12:30-2:00PM PST
A story with no real beginning or end, the work has come to assume a preeminent place in English literature. Published in 1939, the book would take Joyce two decades to complete. Join us as we read this text a few pages at a time, every other Wednesday afternoon
January 22 Reading:
Book Two - Chapter Three of Finnegans Wake by Joyce (page 320, Line 1)
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Schedule:
12:30 - 2:00PM PST
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Tutor:
Barry Rabe
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Location:
Free Onsite Community Seminar Series
Eastern Classics - Tao Te Ching
Tuesday, January 21
12:00-1:00PM PST
Like the west, the east has its own tradition of influential texts that address the perennial questions of human kind. This series will focus on the texts of Taoism, Confucius, Buddhism, and Hinduism. We invite you to join us and attendees can feel free to join intermittently, the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays.
January 21 Reading:
The Tao Te Ching - Chapters Twenty-Four and Twenty-Five
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Schedule:
12:00 - 1:00PM PST
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Tutor:
Andy Gilman
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Location:
111 East Ojai Avenue
Ojai, California 93023
The 1944 book focuses on one important question: "how can the events in space and time which take place within the spatial boundary of a living organism be accounted for by physics and chemistry?" We invite you to join this monthly online series as we read this short but difficult book, one chapter at a time.
January 25 Reading
Chapter 6 - Order, Disorder and Entropy
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Schedule:
12:00 - 2:00PM PST
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Tutor:
Andy Gilman
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Location:
Online Seminar Series
What is Life? by Erwin Schrödinger
Saturday, January 25
12:00-2:00PM PST
Ojai Chautauqua Panel and the Ojai Fire Safe Council - Wildfire Insurance Coverage Panel
December 8, 2024
On December 8 the Ojai Fire Safe Council hosted representatives from: The Institute of Business & HomeSafety (IBHS), United Policyholders, and the University of California, Santa Barbara. The conversation, with a great deal of relevant data, covered: The realities of the insurance crisis and causes, effects of home hardening, and what individuals and communities can do to address these challenges. Visit www.firesafeojai.org to learn more.
An Introduction to The Agora Foundation. What is liberal education?
An Introduction to The Agora Foundation's Ojai Chautauqua Panels.