St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures

Recording of a lecture delivered on September 4, 2026, by Annapolis tutor David Townsend as part of the Formal Lecture Series.

Mr. Townsend offers the following description: "250 years ago, we brought forth a new nation, conceived on ideas ever new, yet ancient as human faith and hope in a loving community. We are on a mission, called to practice the Spirit of America. Rough-hewn as I am, I will explore our errand. What is the relationship of this community to our Declaration of July 4, 1776?"

Recording of a lecture delivered on August 28, 2026, by Annapolis Dean Suzy Paalman as part of the Formal Lecture Series.Ms. Paalman offers the following description: "The main story of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice concerns Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy as they move from mutual dislike to eventual marriage and happiness. Throughout the novel, these two characters provide the occasion for each of them to grow in self-understanding and virtue. In the background of the novel lies the shaky foundation of the Bennet family and the problematic marriage of Lizzy's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. Theirs is a relationship in which each of them exacerbates the flaws of the other, leading to progressive deterioration. The story of this decline can be read in the characters of their five children which range from the virtuous Jane to the profligate Lydia. This lecture will examine the five sisters as a snapshot of the history of the Bennets’ marriage."

Ms. Paalman's lecture is the first formal lecture of the academic year. Previously referred to as the Dean's Lecture, this lecture is now called the Christopher B. Nelson Lecture.

Recording of a lecture delivered on February 10, 1995, by Annapolis tutor Steven Crockett as part of the Formal Lecture Series.

Recording of a lecture delivered on March 29, 1996, by Annapolis tutor Michael Dink as part of the Formal Lecture Series.

Recording of a lecture delivered on April 17, 2026, by Annapolis tutor Louis Petrich, as part of the Formal Lecture Series.

Mr. Petrich offers the following description of his lecture: "To think that Shakespeare felt Iago deeply, as he felt Othello and Desdemona. To authenticate what it’s like to corner human dispositions and fantastically turn all heads. To hear the vulgar tongue of the street on the most intimate and volatile matters. Discretion says, 'be advised.' You may prefer to hear the musical tongues of men and women well-tuned for constant love and aromatic kisses.  Honesty says, 'leave them to time.' That is, to honest Iago, the timekeeper who makes hours seem short or seconds stretch forever. He makes only one mistake.  That is enough, but we shall see. Shakespeare, when he engendered the double-timed action of Othello (and perhaps in no play did he stage a more satisfying action), probably conspired in these terms: 'Iago, accomplice, let’s put people to extreme compulsion of good and evil. At stake is the determination of truth in history and the possession of unmasked souls by heaven or hell.' This lecture will notice things that matter to those outcomes—repetitive stuff, mainly, tracks in the dirt of Iago’s world.  And unless my omissions and exaggerations fail to do their rhetorical job, that dirt and those tracks you may recognize as our world’s."

Recording of a lecture delivered on March 28, 2003, by Annapolis tutor Stewart Umphrey, as part of the Formal Lecture Series.

Recording of a lecture delivered on February 20, 2026, by Annapolis tutor Leah Lasell, as part of the Formal Lecture Series.

Ms. Lasell offers the following description: "Antoine Lavoisier claims that there is no free caloric in his Elementary Treatise on Chemistry. Less than twenty years later, Jane Marcet, in her Conversations on Chemistry (1806), claims that there is. Moreover, she argues that free caloric is essential for understanding temperature equilibrium. Who is right? We will investigate this question as we consider the many phenomena, experiments, and theories that Marcet presents through conversations in the laboratory between Mrs. B, Caroline, and Emily. Marcet’s treatise might be unfamiliar to our community. Marcet’s Conversations on Chemistry is among the most influential and widely read chemistry textbooks written since Lavoisier re-founded chemistry in the late 18th century."

Recording of a lecture delivered on February 13, 2026, by Annapolis tutor Brendon Lasell, as the 2026-26 NEH lecture.

Mr. Lasell offers the following description of his lecture: "Diophantus begins his Arithmetica by saying that he has 'tried to establish the nature and power of numbers.' After a short general introduction, he goes on to pose and solve hundreds of difficult problems about numbers. We will explore whether numbers have a nature and how it can be established, looking at examples of the kind of work Diophantus does with numbers."

Recording of a lecture delivered on February 6, 2026, by Annapolis tutor Janet Dougherty, as part of the Formal Lecture Series.
Ms. Dougherty offers the following description of her lecture: "Usbek, the most prolific writer in Montesquieu’s epistolary novel The Persian Letters, is in voluntary exile from his homeland and his harem. During his sojourn in Europe his perspective as a stranger provides the freedom he needs to develop an understanding of good government completely different from Persian despotic rule. His ideas cohere into a sort of Cartesian political science. But while these ideas diverge continually from an endorsement of despotism, he feels more and more compelled to impose his will on his wives and their guards. Usbek’s hope to be loved by the women he oppresses endures alongside his enlightened views of law and government. Eventually his wives openly rebel; the collapse of the seraglio leads to Usbek’s collapse. I will argue that Usbek’s blindness to his despotic authority derives from his Cartesian method of inquiry. His enlightenment is linked by ‘a secret chain’ to his deepest prejudice. Montesquieu is pointing to a more thorough science of human, i.e. erotic, beings."

Recording of a lecture delivered on September 18, 1992, by Jonathan Tuck as part of the Formal Lecture Series.