Students talk about the Basic Program in their own words

Listen to students talk about the program in their own words. Four students reflect on their encounters with a University of Chicago liberal arts curriculum, on returning to the classroom as an adult, on the relationship between classic works and the world today, and on what’s “basic” about the Basic Program of Liberal Education for [...]

Greetings from Greece – from Basic Program Chair Michaelangelo Allocca

My Basic Program teaching colleague Cindy Rutz – shown here with me, prior to sharing an amazing seafood dinner at the Nero Tis Agapes restaurant overlooking the harbor on the island of Spetses, in a photo taken by our student Luke Bretscher – and I recently spent three weeks in Greece, as instructors with the [...]

2010-2011 Basic Program Alumni Courses

About Alumni Courses Alumni Courses are an integral part of the intellectual life of the Basic Program community. Because the participants are alumni of the program, they are familiar with the works of the curriculum and with each other. This shared knowledge allows for a level of discussion that can be found nowhere else and [...]

The Debt of Socrates

I WENT down yesterday to the Piraeus with Glaucon, that I might offer up my prayers to the goddesses Brussels and Euro. There we chanced to find among other companions Polemarchus, who was sorely vexed. Why the long face? I asked. He replied that his wife, a hairdresser, had just been informed by the Assembly [...]

Machiavelli’s The Prince study retreat

Machiavelli’s The Prince study retreat took place on April 30-May 2, 2010 at Lake Lawn Resort, Delavan WI. Click on this pdf of the Machiavelli Weekend to read comments and see more shots of the weekend.

Text-based learning thrives in Chicago, too – chicagotribune.com

Text-based learning thrives in Chicago, too – chicagotribune.com I was interested to see the quote from Naomi Schaefer Riley in “What Others Are Saying” on Thursday, April 8, about “places in the academy where some humility resides.” In addition to the “Great Books” colleges Ms. Riley mentioned, there is a program right here in Chicago [...]

The Intersecting Lives of da Vinci, Machiavelli, and Borgia and the World They Shaped

Book reviews:  The Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior by Paul Strathern As Paul Strathern explains in his masterful narrative history, The Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior, Borgia was also brilliant, handsome, charismatic and well-versed in the classics, “a superb exemplar of the Renaissance man.” Complete the Washington Post review by Steven Levingston  here. [...]

Machiavelli’s comedy, The Mandrake

Machiavelli’s comedy, The Mandrake, was the most widely performed comedy in Europe in the Renaissance, until a chap named Shakespeare came along. Unfortunately far too few people today are even aware that Machiavelli wrote plays – comedies, no less – let alone get a chance to see one of them performed. (New York audiences got [...]

Basic Program Weekend Study Retreats

Here is information on the upcoming Basic Program Weekend Study Retreats. Spring 2010 TITLE: Machiavelli’s The Prince DATES: April 30-May 2, 2010 Members of A Red Orchid Theater will perform Machiavelli’s comedy The Mandrake. Autumn 2010 TITLE: Love & Persuasion in Plato DATES: Oct 22-24, 2010 The Weekend Study Retreat will focus on the Plato [...]

First Friday Lectures – Spring/Summer 2010

Free and Open to All Click here for more information and to Register (required) for these popular talks. These lectures are offered on the first Friday of every month except July. Lectures take place in the Claudia Cassidy Theater of the Chicago Cultural Center (Michigan Avenue and Randolph Street). The lectures begin at 12:15 pm [...]

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