A great book invites the reader in as an equal.
That is the spirit in which the Catherine Project’s education is offered.
Unless otherwise noted, courses take place online via Zoom.
Our courses are open to adults 16 years or older from all educational backgrounds and walks of life.
We organize three kinds of courses:
Our tutorials are capped at 4-6 readers each and are led by a tutor.
They typically meet for 12 weeks, and are organized around the careful reading and discussion of one or more great books.
Readers write short reflection papers on the weekly readings and share them with the group before each meeting.
Reading groups are typically peer-led and more flexible in nature.
Like a tutorial, the group reads one or more great books and meets regularly to discuss it. The duration of reading groups varies, so please note the advertised start and end dates.
Unlike a tutorial, we aim for a core of 8-10 readers and there is no required writing.
When possible, we organize small group meetings with a tutor competent in subjects such as: the art of writing, ancient languages, and mathematics.
The mode of instruction varies according to the subject being taught.
As with our reading groups, the length of subject tutorials is variable.
Fall Seminar 2023: The Tempest
Our Fall Seminar will occur throughout the day on Friday, October 27th and consist of one-off discussions of the play The Tempest by William Shakespeare.
These two-hour conversations are an opportunity to experience the core activity of the Catherine Project community without committing to weekly meetings. Participation in the Seminar is open to all adults 16 years or older, regardless of previous educational experience or participation in Catherine Project courses.
To apply to participate in our Fall Seminar, please fill out this form.
FALL 2023 OFFERINGS
Registration for our Fall 2023 session has closed.
On Friday, October 27th, we will host our Fall Seminar, a day of single-session discussions on a short text (to be announced). Registration for our Spring 2024 term will open in December.
We also occasionally organize courses spontaneously, including in-person reading groups in geographic areas with known interest.
To be notified when new opportunities to study with us become available, please join our mailing list.
- Aeschylus and Virgil, Oresteia and Aeneid
- Saturdays, 12:30 -2:30 PM, Starts: 09/09
- Course ID: TUT: Aeschylus/Virgil
- Registration deadline: 08/12
- Augustine, Confessions
- Wednesdays, 8:00 -10:00 PM, Starts: 09/06
- Course ID: TUT Confessions (Wed)
- Registration deadline: 08/09
- Augustine, Confessions
- Thursdays, 6:00 -8:00 PM, Starts: 09/07
- Course ID: TUT: Confessions (Thurs)
- Registration deadline: 08/08
- Homer, Iliad and Odyssey
- Mondays, 4:00 -6:00 PM, Starts: 09/25
- Course ID: TUT Homer (Mon)
- Registration deadline: 08/28
- Homer, Iliad and Odyssey
- Thursdays, 11:00 AM-1:00 PM, Starts: 09/07
- Course ID: TUT Homer (Thurs)
- Registration deadline: 08/10
- Plato, Meno
- Fridays, 11:00 AM-1:00 PM, Starts: 09/01
- Course ID: TUT Plato, Meno
- Registration deadline: 08/04
- Plato, Republic
- Thursdays, 11:00 AM-1:00 PM, Starts: 09/14
- Course ID: TUT Plato, Republic
- Registration deadline: 08/17
- Sophocles, The Theban trilogy, Philoctetes, and Electra
- Wednesdays, 9:00 -11:00 PM, Starts: 09/20
- Course ID: TUT Sophocles
- Registration deadline: 08/23
Reading Groups (all times listed are in Eastern Time)
Reading groups are peer-led and meet at the identified times to discuss readings in the relevant text(s). Please note the start and end dates, as the duration of reading groups varies.
If you are new to this kind of study or unsure where to start, you are welcome to email us at: study@catherineproject.org.
- Hannah Arendt, Between Past and Future and Eichmann in Jerusalem
- Thursdays, 8:00 -9:30 PM, 09/07 – 11/30 (13 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Arendt, Eichmann
- Registration deadline: 08/10
- Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition
- Wednesdays, 8:00 -9:30 PM, 09/13 – 11/08 (9 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Arendt, Human Condition
- Registration deadline: 08/16
- Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso
- Fridays, 7:30 -9:00 PM, 09/01 – 12/15 (16 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Orlando Furioso
- Registration deadline: 08/04
- Aristotle, Poetics and Rhetoric
- Mondays, 7:00 -9:00 PM, 09/11 – 11/06 (9 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Aristotle, Poetics
- Registration deadline: 08/14
- Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility
- Every other Friday, 4:00 -5:30 PM, 09/22 – 12/15 (13 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Sense and Sensibility
- Registration deadline: 08/25
- Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths (selections)
- Fridays, 8:30 -10:00 PM, 09/01 – 11/03 (10 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Borges
- Registration deadline: 08/04
- Adolfo Bioy Casares, La invención de Morel, El sueño de los héroes, y Diario de la guerra del cerdo
- Los lunes, 7:00 -8:30 PM, 10/02 – 12/11 (11 semanas)
- Este grupo de lectura leerá y discutirá estos textos en español. Si usted tiene cualquier pregunta o duda en cuanto a su capacidad de participar en el grupo, por favor póngase en contacto con study@catherineproject.org.
- Identificación del curso: RG (ESP) Casares
- Fecha limite de registro: 09/04
- Classics of children’s literature: Alice in Wonderland, Charlotte’s Web, The Little Prince, Peter Pan, The Velveteen Rabbit, and The Wind in the Willows
- Fridays, 7:30 -9:00 PM, 10/06 – 12/15 (11 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Children’s Lit
- Registration deadline: 09/08
- The poetry of Du Fu
- Tuesdays, 7:30 -9:00 PM, 09/05 – 11/28 (13 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Du Fu
- Registration deadline: 08/08
- Meister Eckhart, Selections from his sermons and writings
- Wednesdays, 2:00 -3:00 PM, 09/06 – 11/29 (13 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Meister Eckhart
- Registration deadline: 08/09
- T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets
- Saturdays, 9:00 -10:30 AM, 10/07 – 10/28 (4 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Four Quartets
- Registration deadline: 09/08
- The Federalist Papers
- Mondays, 7:30 -9:30 PM, 09/11 – 12/04 (13 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Federalist Papers
- Registration deadline: 08/14
- The Iroquois Great Law of Peace, Magna Carta, and U.S. Constitution
- Tuesdays, 12:00 -1:30 PM, 10/10 – 10/24 (3 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Great Law of Peace
- Registration deadline: 09/08
- James Joyce, Ulysses
- Thursdays, 7:00 -8:30 PM, 09/07 – 11/16 (11 weeks)
- Course ID: RG James Joyce
- Registration deadline: 08/04
- Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love
- Thursdays, 2:00 -3:00 PM, 12/07 – 01/11 (6 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Julian of Norwich
- Registration deadline: 09/08
- Carl Jung, The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche
- Tuesdays, 1:00 -2:30 PM, 09/19 – 12/19 (14 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Jung
- Registration deadline: 08/22
- Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death and “Look at the Birds of the Air; Look at the Lily in the Field”
- Wednesdays, 3:30 -5:00 PM, 09/06 – 11/29 (13 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Kierkegaard
- Registration deadline: 08/09
- Classics of Korean literature: The Story of Hong Gildong, The Nine Cloud Dream, and The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong
- Thursdays, 7:30 -9:00 PM, 09/21 – 12/14 (13 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Korean Lit
- Registration deadline: 08/24
- John Locke, Two Treatises of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration
- Tuesdays, 8:00 -9:30 PM, 09/05 – 10/24 (8 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Locke
- Registration deadline: 08/08
- Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain
- Thursdays, 6:30 -8:00 PM, 09/07 – 12/07 (14 weeks)
- Course ID: RG The Magic Mountain
- Registration deadline: 08/10
- Michel de Montaigne, Essays
- Mondays, 7:00 -9:00 PM, 09/04 – 01/29 (22 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Montaigne
- Registration deadline: 08/07
- Ibn al-Muqaffa, Kalīlah and Dimnah
- Wednesdays, 12:00 -1:30 PM, 09/20 – 12/13 (13 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Kalilah and Dimnah
- Registration deadline: 08/23
- Friedrich Nietzsche, Daybreak and Human, All Too Human
- Mondays, 8:00 -10:00 PM, 09/04 – 12/11 (15 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Nietzsche, Daybreak
- Registration deadline: 08/07
- Friedrich Nietzsche, “On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life”
- Tuesdays, 6:00 -7:30 PM, 09/26 – 10/24 (5 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Nietzsche, History
- Registration deadline: 08/29
- Pascal, Pensées
- Thursdays, 3:30 -5:00 PM, 12/07 – 01/11 (6 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Pascal
- Registration deadline: 09/08
- Plato, Apology of Socrates
- Thursdays, 8:00 -9:30 PM, 10/12 – 11/16 (6 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Plato, Apology
- Registration deadline: 09/08
- Plato, Republic
- Thursdays, 8:00 -10:00 PM, 09/14 – 11/16 (10 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Plato, Republic
- Registration deadline: 08/17
- Plato, Symposium, Hippias Major, Hippias Minor, Meno, Phaedrus, and Phaedo
- Tuesdays, 7:30 -9:00 PM, 10/24 – 02/06 (16 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Plato, Symposium
- Registration deadline: 09/08
- Plato, Theatetus, Sophist, and Statesman
- Mondays and Fridays, 8:00 -10:00 AM, 09/01 – 12/22 (17 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Plato, Theaetetus
- Registration deadline: 08/04
- The Book of Psalms
- Wednesdays, 8:00 -9:30 PM, 09/20 – 11/08 (8 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Psalms
- Registration deadline: 08/23
- Rig Veda
- Thursdays, 6:00 -7:30 PM, 10/05 – 11/30 (9 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Rig Veda
- Registration deadline: 09/07
- Sensation and supernatural fiction: Uncle Silas by J. Sheridan le Fanu and ghost stories by M. R. James
- Tuesdays, 8:00 -10:00 PM, 09/05 – 12/19 (16 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Sensational Lit
- Registration deadline: 08/08
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago
- Tuesdays, 6:00 -7:30 PM, 09/05 – 12/05 (14 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Solzhenitsyn
- Registration deadline: 08/10
- Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene
- Mondays, 4:00 -5:30 PM, 09/11 – 12/04 (13 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Spenser
- Registration deadline: 08/14
- Derek Walcott, Omeros
- Sundays, 7:30 -9:00 PM, 10/01 – 11/19 (8 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Omeros
- Registration deadline: 09/03
- Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
- Thursdays, 7:00 -8:30 PM, 09/14 – 11/09 (9 weeks)
- Course ID: RG Weber
- Registration deadline: 08/17
Subject Tutorials (all times listed are in Eastern Time)
Each subject tutorial meets at the listed dates and times to study the identified subject. Participants may be given assignments to complete before each meeting: these are given to assist in learning and no grades or credit will be given.
Intermediate language tutorials typically involve the translation of texts and are most appropriate for those who have spent at least a year studying the relevant language.
Advanced language tutorials are appropriate for readers who already have some experience reading texts in the relevant language (for example, through recent participation in intermediate language tutorials).
If you have questions about any of our language tutorials, you are welcome to email us at: study@catherineproject.org.
- Introductory ancient Greek
- Sundays, 8:00 -9:30 PM, 09/03 – 11/21 (12 weeks)
- Course ID: ST Intro Greek
- Registration deadline: 08/08
- Intermediate ancient Greek translation: Book 5 of Plato’s Republic
- Saturdays, 10:00 AM-12:00 PM, 09/09 – 12/09 (14 weeks)
- Course ID: ST Interm Greek
- Registration deadline: 08/12
- Advanced ancient Greek composition
- Wednesdays, 7:00 -8:30 PM, 09/06 – 12/13 (15 weeks)
- For this tutorial, readers are expected to independently review grammatical material and write weekly Greek compositions, which they will share with the entire group. Readers are expected to review one another’s compositions before each meeting and the meetings will be spent reviewing, workshopping, and correcting everyone’s compositions.
- Course ID: ST Adv Greek
- Registration deadline: 08/09
We provide substantive, high-quality, person-to-person teaching to adults 16 years or older at no fixed cost to them. We also host peer-led reading groups and lectures.
We seek to cultivate free and independent learners who study on their own initiative, driven by their own fundamental questions. To do so, we follow the tried-and-true practice of liberation through person-to-person conversation about great books. Such reading and conversation has long been a refuge for the poor, oppressed, and marginalized, and it enriches people from all walks of life.
The Catherine Project offers no credits or degrees. We do not grade the efforts of our participants. We charge no tuition. We encourage donations from our readers in accordance with their ability to pay, as well as from benefactors interested in our mission. We believe that no one’s inability to pay should be an obstacle to their opportunities to learn.
Our offerings are available to adults 16 years or older from all educational backgrounds and walks of life. In reviewing applications to study with us, we look for enthusiasm and fit for an independent and collaborative style of learning.
Bear in mind that we have many more readers who are interested in studying with us than we have the capacity to serve. Please consider studying with us only if you are confident that you can commit to the regular readings and meetings.
We read books of richness, depth, and lasting value that bear repeated re-readings. Such books teach readers at all levels of preparation, and they level the distance between the teacher and the learner so as to encourage collaboration. With a book as a teacher, each reader develops the ability to inquire in depth and to evaluate evidence by his or her own lights.
We find that conversation is the best way to cultivate free and independent learners. Conversation and reading are the primary vehicles of the learning we offer: writing assignments are subsidiary. Essays help the reader to think and help to focus the conversations that result from it.
We seek to meet the human need for serious inquiry with as few arbitrary constraints as possible.
