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General Offerings
In addition to our Life of the Mind Seminar, we offer a variety of courses focused on particular great books, ancient languages, and other related subjects. These courses offer opportunities to focus one’s learning in a welcoming intellectual community.
Our courses are open to adults 16 years or older from all educational backgrounds and walks of life. Most courses meet weekly for between 1-2 hours.
Unless otherwise noted, meetings take place online via Zoom.
Reading groups
In a reading group, you choose one or more great books to study and meet regularly for discussions with a group of 8-14 peers. Discussions are peer-led in accordance with our core principles.
Intensive reading groups
Modeled on our old tutorial format, intensive reading groups are an opportunity to go deeper with one’s own thinking and the thinking of others.
The size of the group is smaller, allowing each reader more conversational space, and readers are asked to write and share short weekly reflection papers.
Subject tutorials
When possible, we organize small group meetings with a tutor competent in subjects such as: the art of writing, ancient languages, and mathematics.
The number of readers, duration, and mode of instruction all vary according to the subject being taught and the preferences of the tutor.
Registration closes on Friday, August 16th,
or until courses are full.
Please note: all meeting times are listed in U.S. Eastern Time and dates follow the convention of month/day/year.
Subject Tutorials
Each subject tutorial meets at the listed days 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.
Introductory language tutorials are open to any reader who is willing to put in the effort of learning a new language.
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).
Intermediate ancient Greek: Plato, Republic, Book 8
– Saturday, 10:00 AM-12:00 PM, 9/14-12/14 (14 wks)
Intermediate Latin: Deeds of the Romans and History of Apollonius, King of Tyre
– Wednesday, 4:00-5:30 PM, 9/11-12/18 (15 wks)
Intensive Reading Groups
Groups meet on the identified dates and times to discuss readings in the listed text(s). Readers are expected to write short reflection papers each week and share them with the entire group. Reflection papers are intended as an aid to thinking and conversation, and no grades are given.
Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning and Max Weber, “Science as a Vocation”
– Tuesday, 6:30-8:30 PM, 9/10-11/19 (11 wks)
Cuneiform Law: Codes of Ur-Nammu, Lipit-Ishtar, and Hammurabi
– Wednesday, 12:00-1:30 PM, 10/16-11/20 (6 wks)
Reading Groups
Groups meet on the identified dates and times to discuss readings in the listed text(s). Unless otherwise noted, meetings are conducted in English and take place online.
Scholar in Novel: Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim and John Kennedy Toole, Confederacy of Dunces
– Thursday, 7:00-8:15 PM, 9/12-11/14 (10 wks)
Aristotle, On the Soul and Poetics
– Thursday, 11:00 AM-12:30 PM, 11/7-5/1/2025 (26 wks)
EN ESPAÑOL: Jorge Luis Borges, Ficciones
– Saturday, 8:30-10:00 AM, 9/28-11/23 (9 wks)
– This course will be conducted in Spanish.
Charlotte Brontë, Villette
– Thursday, 6:30-8:00 PM, 9/12-12/12 (14 wks)
Frances Burney, Evelina
– Tuesday, 7:00-9:00 PM, 10/22-12/17 (9 wks)
Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus and Victor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
– Wednesday, 7:00-8:30 PM, 9/11-11/6 (9 wks)
Cantor, Contributions to the Theory of Transfinite Numbers and Dedekind, Essays on the Theory of Numbers
– Thursday, 7:30-9:30 PM, 9/12-12/12 (14 wks)
Cervantes, Don Quixote, Part 1
– Tuesday, 4:30-6:00 PM, 10/1-11/12 (7 wks)
William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
– Sunday, 7:45 -9:15 PM, 9/22-11/3 (7 wks)
E. M. Forster, Howard’s End and Zadie Smith, On Beauty
– Thursday, 7:00-8:30 PM, 9/12-11/14 (10 wks)
Homer, Iliad
– Sunday, 8:30-10:00 PM, 9/22-11/10 (8 wks)
Icelandic Sagas
– Tuesday, 9:00-10:30 PM, 9/10-12/17 (15 wks)
Søren Kierkegaard, The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air
– Friday, 1:00-3:00 PM, 11/8-11/22 (3 wks)
Søren Kierkegaard, Philosophical Fragments and De omnibus dubitandum est
– Wednesday, 8:00-10:00 PM, 9/11-11/6 (9 wks)
Lucretius, On the Nature of Things
– Tuesday, 7:30-9:00 PM, 9/10-10/29 (8 wks)
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good & Evil
– Monday, 7:30-9:00 PM, 9/9-11/4 (9 wks)
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
– Monday, 2:30-4:00 PM, 9/9-11/18 (11 wks)
Sylvia Plath, Selected poetry
– Tuesday, 5:00-6:00 PM, 9/17-10/22 (6 wks)
IN-PERSON: Plato, Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo
– Monday, 6:30-8:00 PM, 9/23-10/21 (5 wks)
– This course will meet in-person in NYC at Pier 57 (25 11th Ave, New York, NY 10011). Meetings are not hybrid.
Plato, Lesser Hippias
– Friday, 12:00-1:30 PM, 10/4-10/25 (4 wks)
Plutarch, Lives (selections)
– Thursday, 8:00-9:30 PM, 11/7-12/19 (7 wks)
Ezra Pound, Hugh Selwyn-Mauberly; W.S. Graham, The Nightfishing; Geoffrey Hill, The Mystery of the Charity of Charles Peguy
– Sunday, 7:00-9:00 PM, 9/15-9/29 (3 wks)
Éric Rohmer, Selected films
– Thursday, 8:00-9:30 PM, 10/10-1/16/2025 (15 wks)
IN-PERSON: Rousseau, The Social Contract and Joseph de Maistre, The Generative Principles of Political Constitutions (in-person, Chicago)
– Saturdays, 1:00-2:30 PM, 9/7-10/19 (7 wks)
– This course will meet at the West Loop Public Library location (122 N. Aberdeen Street; Chicago, IL 60607). Meetings are not hybrid.
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi, Selected writings
– Saturday, 1:00-2:30 PM, 10/5-11/29 (8 wks)
Spinoza, Ethics
– Monday, 8:30-10:00 PM, 9/16-12/16 (14 wks)
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War and Xenophon, Hellenika
– Thursday, 1:00-2:30 PM, 10/10-1/16/2025 (15 wks)
Robert Walser, Jakob Von Gunten
– Sunday, 8:00-9:30 PM, 10/13-11/3 (4 wks)
Wharton, Rhys, Parrott: Edith Wharton, Twilight Sleep; Jean Rhys, Quartet; Ursula Parrott, Ex-Wife
– Sunday, 6:30-7:45 PM, 9/15-11/17 (10 wks)
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass and The Tenderest Lover
– Thursday, 8:00-9:30 PM, 9/5-10/17 (7 wks)
Xenophon, Anabasis and The Education of Cyrus
– Monday, 8:00-9:30 PM, 9/9-12/9 (14 wks)
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Catherine Project, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization incorporated in the State of Maryland. A copy of our current financial statement is available by writing to Catherine Project, 2631 Housley Road, Box 1006, Annapolis, MD 21401 or by calling (443) 808-0881. Documents and information submitted under the Maryland Solicitations Act are also available, for the cost of postage and copies, from the Maryland Secretary of State, State House, Annapolis, MD 21401 or by calling (410) 974-5534.
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