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.
upcoming community seminar & symposium
Our 2024 spring Community Seminar on Plato’s Symposium will be held online on April 26th.
Seminars will be held from 11am-1pm, 3pm-5pm and 7:30pm-9:30pm (ET). Registration closed on Friday, April 12th, but if you email us, we might be able to fit you in!
Register here for our 2024 in-person Symposium in NYC on May 4th.
We will have a seminar on Plato’s Symposium from 2-4pm followed by a party—all in the Morningside Heights neighborhood.
For additional dates and upcoming events, see our Main Page.
summer 2024 registration
Registration for our Summer offerings closed on April 8th, but there are still opportunities to study with us! Register above for one of our community events.
Registration for our Fall offerings will open in late July, and courses will begin in early September.
summer 2024 OFFERINGS
Tutorials (all times listed are in Eastern Time)
Each tutorial meets at the identified times to discuss readings in the relevant 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. Tutorials typically run for 12 weeks, unless otherwise noted.
If you are new to this kind of study or unsure where to start, you are welcome to email us at: study@catherineproject.org.
Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Aristotle: The Persians, The Seven Against Thebes, The Suppliant Maidens, Prometheus Bound, Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides; Sophocles: Antigone, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonnus, Ajax, The Women of Trachis, Electra, Philoctetes, The Trackers; Aristotle Poetics (excerpts)
o Tuesday, 12:30pm–2:30pm, 5/14–8/27 (16 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, TUT Aeschylus/Sophocles/Aristotle
o Please note the significant reading load required for this tutorial, also recalling the course’s weekly writing component, and ensure that you have the time to commit to this offering.
Plato, Laches, Charmides, Greater Hippias
o Thursday, 7:00pm–9:00pm, 5/23–8/15 (13 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, TUT Plato, Charmides etc.
Plato, Gorgias
o Monday, 7:30 pm–9:30 pm, 5/13–7/29 (12 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, TUT Plato, Gorgias
Plato, Laws
o Wednesday, 7:00pm–9:00pm, 6/5–8/21 (12 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, TUT Plato, Laws
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 subject tutorials, you are welcome to email us at: study@catherineproject.org.
Advanced ancient Greek, Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound
o Friday, 2:00 pm–4:00 pm, 5/17–8/15 (13 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, ST Greek adv, Aeschylus
Intermediate ancient Greek, Homer’s Odyssey, Books 9-10
o Friday, 6:00 pm–7:30 pm, 6/7–7/19 (7 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, ST Greek interm, Homer
Intermediate ancient Greek, Plato’s Republic, Book 7 (ed. Slings)
o Saturday, 10:00 am–12:00 pm, 5/25–8/17 (13 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, ST Greek interm, Republic (Sa)
Intermediate ancient Greek, Plato’s Republic, Book 7 (ed. Slings)
o Sunday, 10:00 am–12:00 pm, 5/26–8/18 (13 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, ST Greek interm, Republic (Su)
Intermediate Latin, Ovid’s Metamorphoses
o Friday, 8:00 am–9:00 am, 5/17/2024–8/2/2024 (12 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, ST Latin interm, Ovid
Intermediate Latin, Virgil’s Aeneid, Book 11
o Wednesday, 4:00 pm–5:00 pm, 5/22–8/2 (12 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, ST Latin interm, Virgil
Writing: The Personal Essay
o Sunday, 7:00pm–9:00pm, 5/19–8/11 (13 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, ST Writing
o What is authentic writing, and how can we write more authentically? How can we read like writers? These questions will guide our study of classic essays by Montaigne, Emerson, Twain, Churchill, C.S. Lewis, Mary Oliver, and others. We’ll do writing exercises in addition to each week’s reading. And we’ll each write an essay by the end of the tutorial. Expect to spend at least 5 or 6 hours per week preparing for class and writing outside of our meeting time.
o Texts will be distributed by email in PDF form.
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.
Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment
o Wednesday, 7:00pm–8:30pm, 6/5–7/31 (9 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Adorno/Horkheimer
Aristotle, Physics and Metaphysics
o Wednesday, 7:00pm–8:30pm, 5/15–12/18 (32 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Aristotle, Physics/Metaphysics
o This group will read both the Physics and the Metaphysics over the course of the summer and fall terms.
Aristotle, On the Soul (De Anima)
o Thursday, 7:00pm–8:30pm, 7/18–8/22 (6 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Aristotle, On the Soul
Farid ud–Din Attar, The Conference of the Birds
o Tuesday, 7:30pm–9:00pm, 7/9–9/10 (10 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Attar
Louis–Ferdinand Céline, Journey to the End of the Night
o Sunday, 7:30pm–9:00pm, 5/19–7/21 (10 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Céline
Paul Claudel and Manoel de Oliveira, The Satin Slipper
o Tuesday, 7:00pm–8:30pm, 5/14–6/25 (7 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Claudel/Oliveira
o This course aims to read Paul Claudel’s lengthy drama and then watch a 7 hour film adaptation by Manoel de Oliveira (probably in two parts).
Ecclesiastes (KJV)
o Monday, 8:00pm–9:30pm, 7/1–7/22 (4 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Ecclesiastes
o Participants are requested to have read the entirety of Ecclesiastes before the first meeting.
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Volumes I–III)
o Wednesday, 8:00pm–9:30pm, 5/15–9/4 (17 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Gibbon
Martin Heidegger, Introduction to Metaphysics
o Monday, 7:00pm–9:00pm, 6/10–8/12 (10 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Heidegger
Geoffrey Hill, Broken Hierarchies
o Tuesday, 7:00pm–8:30pm, 7/2–9/3 (10 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Hill
Homer, Iliad
o Thursday, 8:00 pm–9:30 pm, 5/16–6/27 (7 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Homer
Job (the Biblical book of)
o Tuesday, 7:00pm–8:30pm, 6/18–7/23 (6 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Job
Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or, Vol. 1
o Monday, 8:00pm–9:30pm, 6/3– 9/16 (16 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Kierkegaard (in–person)
o This course will be conducted in-person in Bloomington, IN. It is not hybrid.
Charlotte Mason, A Philosophy of Education
o Monday, 12:00 pm–1:30 pm, 5/13– 6/17 (6 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Mason
Maurice Merleau–Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception
o Thursday, 6:30pm–8:00pm, 5/23– 9/6 (16 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Merleau–Ponty
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy
o Wednesday, 7:00pm–8:30pm, 6/3– 6/24 (4 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Nietzsche, Birth of Tragedy
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, On the Genealogy of Morality
o Monday, 2:30pm–4:00pm, 5/6–8/12 (15 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Nietzsche, Beyond/Genealogy
Flannery O’Connor, A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories, Wise Blood, The Violent Bear It Away,
Everything that Rises Must Converge
o Tuesday, 7:00pm–8:30pm, 5/14–7/16 (10 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG O’Connor (A)
Flannery O’Connor, Selected Fiction
o Tuesday, 7:30pm–9:00pm, 5/14–8/20 (15 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG O’Connor (B)
Ovid, Metamorphoses
o Sunday, 4:00pm–5:30pm, 5/26–9/8 (16 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Ovid (Su)
Ovid, Metamorphoses
o Monday, 7:30pm–9:30pm, 5/13–8/19 (15 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Ovid (M)
The Pearl: A Medieval Poem about Grief
o Monday, 6:30 pm–8:30 pm, 5/20–5/20 (1 week)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG The Pearl
Plato, Euthyphro, Hippias Major, Laches, Lysis, Ion, Hippias Minor, Crito
o Wednesday, 2:00pm–3:30pm, 5/15–7/3 (8 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Plato
Walter Scott, The Bride of Lammermoor (9 weeks)
o Tuesday, 7:00pm–9:00pm, 7/2–8/27
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Scott
William Shakespeare, Tragedies and Comedies: Hamlet, King Lear, Othello; Midsummer Night’s Dream, Tempest, As You Like It
o Wednesday, 7:00pm–8:30pm, 5/22–7/31 (11 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Shakespeare (in–person)
o This course will be conducted in-person in Annapolis, MD. It is not hybrid.
o This course will meet every other week on 5/22, 6/5, 6/19, 7/3, 7/17, 7/31.
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
o Thursday, 2:00 pm–3:30 pm, 6/20–7/25 (6 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Shakespeare, Midsummer
Sophocles, Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone
o Monday, 8:00 pm–9:30 pm, 5/13–5/27 (3 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Sophocles
The Tale of Sinuhe
o Tuesday, 12:00pm–1:30pm, 5/28–6/24 (4 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Tale of the Sinuhe
o This reading group will include a writing component of short, weekly reflection papers.
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
o Thursday, 8:00pm–10:00pm, 5/23–7/18 (9 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Thucydides
Abu Bakr Ibn Tufayl, The Self–Taught Philosopher (Hayy Ibn Yaqzan)
o Monday, 6:30pm–8:00pm, 6/24–7/1 (2 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Tufayl
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse
o Saturday, 11:00am–12:30pm, 7/6–7/27 (4 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Woolf, Lighthouse (Sa)
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse
o Tuesday, 4:00pm–5:30pm, 7/1–8/13 (7 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Woolf, Lighthouse (Tu)
Virginia Woolf, The Waves
o Tuesday, 6:30pm–8:00pm, 6/25–8/6 (7 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Woolf, Waves
Xenophon, Education of Cyrus
o Monday, 9:00am–11:00am, 7/8–10/28 (17 weeks)
o Course ID: 2024, Su, RG Xenophon
