Online Seminar

Free Community Seminar Series

Eastern Classics
Next session Thursday, May 28, 2020

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Like the west, the east has its own tradition of influential texts that address the perennial questions of human kind. Centering around the bodies of work from China, Japan, and India, this series will focus on the texts of Taoism, Confucius, Buddhism, and Hinduism. We invite you to join us. 

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The May 28 reading is:
Bhagavad Gita - Chapters Three and Four

Click on the icon below to download.

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Schedule:
12:00 - 1:00PM PDT

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Location: 

Online. Click here. 

Meeting ID: 821 6029 3531

Password: 042367

Free Online Ojai Chautauqua Panel

What is the Future of Education After COVID-19?
Thursday, May 28, 2020 - 6:00-7:30PM PDT

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These are unprecedented times and it’s unclear whether the worst is behind us. A vast majority of schools, at every educational level, have ceased on-site programs for the remainder of the school year. Many schools are also hesitant to set any definite plans for fall 2020, with so much still uncertain. In the mean time, most public and private institutions have moved to online learning and alternative approaches, with varying levels of success. 

 

What is the best thinking in online learning, and where are schools finding success?
How are institutions looking at structural change in order to stay viable and effective? 
How are leaders thinking about the future intersection of K-12 and higher education? 
How will fields that have in-person practicum requirements fulfill their training? 
What are schools that rely on international students planning to do next school year?
Will job training reorient to high-demand fields on a national scale? 

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In the spirit of civil discourse and objective inquiry, the Ojai Chautauqua will present a free, moderated 1.5 hour online panel presentation with a group of leaders from K-12 public and private organizations, a regional university, and a K-12 religious home school. During the discussion there will also be ample opportunity for audience members to write in questions for the panelists to address. We invite you to join us for this critical conversation as we look at options for the future of education.

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Panelists:

Erika Beck - President of CSU Channel Islands
Jodi Grass - Head of Oak Grove School
Paul Lazenby - Director of Mother of Divine Grace School
Tiffany Morse - Superintendent of Ojai Unified School District

 

Moderator:

Tom Krause, Board President of the Agora Foundation

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Schedule:
6:00 - 7:30PM PDT

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Registration: 

Online. Click here. 

Online Seminar

Series on Ocean and Underworld -  
Selections from Odyssey by Homer

Saturday, May 30, 2020 

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What mysteries are hidden underwater and deep in the underworld? Will one who explores these realms discover ancestors, gods, monsters,... or even oneself? This series will consider the ocean and the underworld as depicted in these classic literary texts. 

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May 30th Reading:

Odyssey by Homer - Books 5, 9-12. Click on the icon below to download.

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Future Readings in the Series:

The Book of Jonah
Aristophanes, The Frogs
Lucian, A True Story
Virgil, Aeneid - Books 3, 4, 5, 6
Cervantes, Don Quixote - The Cave of Montesinos
Dante, Inferno (selections)
Shakespeare, The Tempest 
Melville, Moby Dick (selections)
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World 
T.S. Eliot, The Wasteland

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Schedule:

12:00-2:00PM PDT

 

Tutor: 

Elizabeth Reyes

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Location: 

Online. Register to receive the link. 

Online Seminar

Free Community Seminar Series

The Foundations of Our Republic, Take II

Monday, June 1, 2020

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What are the fundamental principles of our Republic? Are these principles based on a view of objective reality/nature, or simply the "consent of the governed"? Depending on how one addresses the previous question: Are these principles changeable, and if so on what grounds? How should one read the founding documents? What authority does the Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary branches have? What are rights? Are they based on nature or consent? Are they inalienable?

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The June reading is -
the Federalist Papers 78 and 85
Click the icon to download.

 

Schedule:
5:30 - 6:30PM PDT

 

Readings: 
Declaration of Independence, The Articles of Confederation, selected Federalist Papers, selected Anti-Federalist Papers, the U.S. Constitution, selections from Democracy in American, Dred Scott Decision and Dissenting View (edited), selected Lincoln speeches, Lincoln Douglass Debates (edited), Plessy v. Ferguson and Dissenting View (edited), Brown v. Board of Education, Letter from Birmingham Jail, Proposed Equal Rights Amendment, UN Declaration of Human Rights

 

Login Details click here: 

Meeting ID: 856 8640 5480
Password: 531927

Online Seminar

Series On Thucydides -
The Peloponnesian War - Book Two

Saturday, June 6, 2020 

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Is there an art to writing and reading history? Is a detached view of historical events desirable, or even possible? What does this conflict (431-404 BC) in particular have to teach us. This series will cover all eight books over time, with one two-hour online seminar per book.

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Schedule:

12:00-2:00PM PDT

 

Tutor: 

David Appleby

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Location: 

Online. Register to receive the link. 

Online Seminar

Series On Marcel Proust - Swann's Way  - Part II -
Combray II, pp. 49-135

Saturday, June 13, 2020 

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“Always try to keep a patch of sky above your life."

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Schedule:

12:00-2:00PM PDT

 

Tutor: 

Patricia Locke

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Location: 

Online. Register to receive the link. 

Online Seminar

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Thursday, June 18, 2020 and

Thursday, June 25, 2020 

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"Most people...are like a falling leaf that drifts and turns in the air, flutters, and falls to the ground. But a few others are like stars which travel one defined path: no wind reaches them, they have within themselves their guide and path.”

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Schedule:

6:00-8:00PM PDT

 

Tutors: 

Roxana Zirakzadeh and Andy Gilman

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Location: 

Online. Register to receive the link. 

Online Seminar

Series on Anguish and the Absurd  - 
Nausea by Jean Paul Sartre

Saturday, June 20, 2020 

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This series will explore the troubling world of the absurd through the writings of Kafka, Gogol, Camus, Sartre, Borges, Beckett, and others, and will extend to discussions of film and visual arts.

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Schedule:

12:00-2:00PM PDT

 

Tutors: 

Paul Herder and Andy Gilman

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Location: 

Online. Register to receive the link. 

Online Seminar

Series - Athens and Jerusalem: 
Reason and Revelation - Part II -

Saturday, June 27 , 2020 

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We invite you to this six-part series, exploring all three Jerusalem faith traditions from the Socratic philosophical perspective focusing on the questions: What does it mean to be good at being human... To live the best human life?

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June 27th Reading:

Plato, Euthyphro

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Future Readings in the Series:

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Papal Encyclical Fides et Ratio and Thomas Aquinas on natural law

Al Ghazali, The Incoherence of the Philosophers - Discussion 3 and Averroes, Decisive Treatise;

Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed, "On the Study of Metaphysics"

Leo Strauss, Mutual Influence of Theology and Philosophy

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Schedule:

12:00-2:00PM PDT

 

Tutor: 

Karl Haigler

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Location: 

Online. Register to receive the link. 

Online Seminar

Russian Short Stories - Tolstoy and Dostoevsky

Saturday, July 11 , 2020 

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"Oh, what a great sin!" she cried. "How can you! Have mercy on yourself.
To destroy somebody's soul... and worse, your own!..."

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July 11 Reading:

Tolstoy, The Forged Coupon
Dostoevsky, The Honest Thief
Click on the icons to download

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Schedule:

12:00-2:00PM PDT

 

Tutors: 

Kevin Walker and Andy Gilman

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Location: 

Online. Register to receive the link.