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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

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Online Seminar Series

Finnegans Wake by James Joyce

Wednesday, June 11

12:30-2:00PM PDT

Online Seminar Series

Blaise Pascal - Pensées

Thursday, June 12

12:30-2:00PM PDT

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.

 

June 11 Reading:

Book Two - Chapter Three of Finnegans Wake by Joyce (page 363, Line 17)

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Schedule:

12:30 - 2:00PM PDT

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Tutor:

Barry Rabe

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Location:

Online. Register to receive the link.

Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic writer. He is known for his contributions to mathematics, physics, and philosophy, particularly his work on geometry, probability theory, and his philosophical argument The Wager. This series continues a broader series on epistemology. All are welcome. Please join us even if this will be your first seminar in the series. 

 

June 12 Reading:

“The Memorial” (pp. 285-86),
Sections 1-48, 68-118

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Schedule:

12:30 - 2:00PM PDT

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Tutor:

Carol Seferi

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Location:

Online. Register to receive the link.

Online Seminar Series

 Shakespeare in Britain and Greece: Comic, Tragic, Both

Saturday, June 14

12:00-2:00PM PDT

In the geography of his poetic imagination, Shakespeare seems to find world enough in time -- a stage in every age. In these plays, the poet’s constant themes are love, betrayal, identity, disguise, given in about as many combinations and permutations as one could wish, romantic, comic, tragic, and blends thereof.

 

June 14 Reading:

Timon of Athens by William Shakespeare

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Schedule:

12:00 - 2:00PM PDT

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Tutors:

Eric Stull and Jordan Hoffman

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Location:

Online. Register to receive the link.

An Introduction to The Agora Foundation. What is liberal education? 

An Introduction to The Agora Foundation's Ojai Chautauqua Panels.

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