Recording of a lecture delivered on March 28, 2025, by Dr. Emily Austin as part of the Formal Lecture Series.

Dr. Austin is an Associate Professor of Classics and the College at the University of Chicago, with research interests in Greek literature, especially Homer and depictions of solitude in ancient Greece. Her first book, Grief and the Hero: the Futility of Longing in the Iliad, explores the nexus of grief, longing and anger in the Iliad. She is currently working on a second book, Solitude and its Powers in Ancient Greece, which identifies surprising moments when ancient Greek poetry conceives of solitude as a good thing. 

Dr. Austin offers this introduction to her lecture: Sophocles’ Philoctetes presents its lonely hero as incomparably wretched. Yet this suffering figure also claims that his isolated survival is something uniquely heroic. This lecture explores the tension between debasement and nobility in Sophocles’ play, taking seriously Philoctetes’ claims to heroism, which are unparalleled in the poetic discourse of his time.

Recording of a lecture delivered on October 3, 2003, by Annapolis tutor Jonathan Tuck as part of the Formal Lecture Series.

Recording of a lecture delivered on April 9, 2014, by Francis J. "Bing" West as part of the LCDR Erik S. Kristensen Lecture Series.

The lecture is the second in a series of joint lectures series between St. John's College and the U.S. Naval Academy to honor the memory of Lieutenant Commander Erik S. Kristensen. An alumnus of the United States Naval Academy and the St. John's College Graduate Institute, Kristensen, a Navy SEAL, was killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan in 2005. This lecture series aims to create even greater ties between the two schools, as well as to educate the public about civil-military relations and the place of the liberal arts in education of naval and military professions.

Recording of a lecture delivered by Santa Fe tutor Grant H. Franks on February 6, 1998, as part of the Formal Lecture Series.

Recording of a lecture delivered on February 7, 2025, by Annapolis tutor Mary Elizabeth Halper as part of the Formal Lecture Series.

She offers the following description of her lecture: "There are two kinds of speech: the speech we speak and the speech we read. This lecture is on the latter. By way of comparison with spoken speech, and with help from Plato'sTheaetetus, Phaedo,andPhaedrus, the lecture will reflect on written speech as such, what it offers us and what it asks from us." 

Recording of a lecture delivered on March 18, 2005, by Dylan Casey as part of the Formal Lecture Series.

Recording of a lecture delivered on January 10, 2025, by Annapolis tutor Greg Recco as part of the Formal Lecture Series.

Recording of a lecture delivered by Annapolis tutor Paul Ludwig on November 5, 2004, as part of the Formal Lecture Series.

Recording of a lecture delivered on February 18, 2005, by Dr. Harvey C. Mansfield as part of the Formal Lecture Series.

Recording of a lecture delivered on November 19, 2004, by Stephanie Nelson as part of the Formal Lecture Series.