Please rotate your device.
Text-based seminars

Text-based seminars

Learn more

Text-based seminars

In these seminars our teachers choose texts that they find particularly interesting. Each seminar will consist of reading and discussion, led by the teacher but to a considerable extent shaped by the students' response to the text. These highly participative sessions will appeal to those who are already fluent readers of the language in question and now wish to develop their skills in discussion.

Latin seminars

An introduction to Cicero’s philosophy

Fundamenta philosophiae Ciceronis tractabimus, locos diversos de philosophia ethica (De Finibus), politica (De Re publica, De Legibus), metaphysica (De Divinatione, De Natura Deorum, De Fato), de cognoscendi modis (Academica) legendo. In prima parte scholae discipuli linguam ipsam loquendique facultatem exercebunt (quis fuerit Cicero, quomodo animum et corpus describere possimus, disputationes philosophicae, e.g. virtusne ad vitam bene beateque agendam sufficiat necne et alia eiusdem generis), in altera vero facultatem textus intellegendi et interpretandi exercebimus.

This course offers students who already have a sound grasp of Latin the opportunity to improve their ability to interpret Latin philosophical texts. We will read extracts from Cicero’s works on ethics (De Finibus), politics (De Re publica, De Legibus), epistemology (Academica), and metaphysics (De Divinatione, De Natura Deorum, De Fato). In the first part of each class, students will mostly practise speaking in Latin, learning to express complex sentences and to formulate philosophical hypothesis and critiques. During the second part, they will read and discuss extracts from the texts.
 

  • Intended for proficient speakers who can read Latin authors with ease.
  • Literary and scholarly Latin

    Qui sermones Latinos serere possunt, ii licet facile de rebus cotidianis, difficulter tamen de rebus litteraris ac scholasticis loqui valent. Cui tristi discipulorum condicioni ut medeamur has scholas proponimus ad adipiscendam loquendi de litteris rebusque scholasticis facultatem. Discipuli assiduā colloquiorum lectione quae de scholasticis argumentis sunt conscripta per totum trimestre exercitati, et amplam doctrinam et facultatem Latine loquendi egregiam sibi comparabunt.

    However well we speak Latin, discussing literary and academic topics can be difficult compared to ordinary conversation. We’ve designed this class to address that troublesome discrepancy. Throughout the term students will be reading dialogues that deal with scholarly themes; thus they will learn a substantial amount at the same time as acquiring excellent Latin-speaking skills.
     

  • Intended for proficient speakers who can read Latin authors with ease.
  • Women-only reading seminar

    Seminarium feminis destinatum

    Hoc seminarium feminis destinatum reservatumque est. Feminis enim puellisque hucusque pauciores fuerunt facultates Latine loquendi quam pueris virisque. Neque vero desunt quae Latine optime legant scribantque, tamen inter homines qui Latine loquuntur satis rarae sunt feminae. Qua de causa hoc seminarium praebere decrevimus, ut artem loquendi inter se exerceant feminae, femina ducente. Aptissimum autem erit eis quae Latine iam bene intellegant, nam scopus sessionum erit textus explanare disputareque potius quam vocabula syntaxinque docere.

    Textus ex operibus diversis depromptos legemus, exempli gratia carminibus Tibulli, Catulli, Ovidii, rebus gestis, epistulis Ciceronis, Senecae, Plinii. Qui licet diversi sint, omnes tractant affectus animi: amorem, odium, timorem, luctum, aegritudinem, gaudium, cetera. Singulis septimanis textus ad participes in antecessum mittetur, ut maxima pars seminarii sermoni artemque loquendi colendo dedicetur.

  • Seminaria habebuntur diebus Martis Iovisque hora 5-6.
  •  
    Women-only reading seminar

    There are comparatively few women in the Latin speaking field, a fact that has nothing to do with ability and everything to do with opportunity. This seminar, led by a woman, aims to help redress the balance by giving women the opportunity to practise speaking Latin with each other in a mutually supportive environment. Designed for women who already have a good command of the written language and specifically want to begin or develop their speaking ability, the seminar will encourage discussion of students’ response to the texts rather than primarily teaching grammar and vocabulary.

    The texts have been chosen from a variety of authors and genres including Latin love elegy, Ovid’s exile poetry, and epistolary, historical and philosophical prose. All of them deal with human emotions: love, hatred, fear, grief, depression, elation, and more. In order to allow as much time as possible to be spent practising the art of speaking, the week’s text will be sent to participants in advance, so that those who have the time can read it before the Tuesday session.

  • These seminars will be held in evening session 2 (Tuesdays and Thursdays, 5-6pm).
  • Plautus’s Amphitryo

    Discipulis qui iam fere omnia linguae praecepta Familiā Romanā (vel sim.) usi didicerunt, sed ex limpido auctorum Latinorum fonte nondum biberunt, hunc cursum veluti pontem ac transitum ad auctores veros legendos proponimus, ubi salsam Plauti comoediam nomine Amphitryonem perscrutemur, grammatica et latinitatis propria ante oculos imprimis ponentes.

    If you’ve largely covered the fundamentals of Latin grammar and syntax, perhaps by using Familia Romana, but have yet to sample the pure waters of original Latin authors, this course is for you. Designed to bridge the gap between the two, it will see you studying Plautus's comedy Amphitryo, enjoying the wit and humour while focusing first and foremost on grammar and Latinity.

    Roman authors on science, art, and power

    Fictane sit an vera illa pervulgata opinio quam quidam tradunt, Romanos usui, Graecos vero rationi esse deditos. Ad quodque capitulum binae vel trinae tribuentur lectiones.

    We will consider how much truth there is in the commonly held view that the Romans focused on the practical arts whereas the ancient Greeks dedicated themselves to theory and reason. Each topic will be explored through several readings from various authors, outlined below:

    1. The Origins of the Arts Unde originem duxerint artes

    2. Land economy De terra

    3. Family Medicine Medicina paterfamilias

    4. Architecture and engineering Vitruvius, architectus et machinator

    5. Philosophy and natural science Philosophi et scientiarum gradus

    6. The Natural World Historia naturalis

    7. Art and Power Ars et potestas

     

  • Intended for proficient speakers who can read Latin authors with ease.
  • An introduction to Seneca’s philosophy

    Si Latinum sermonem intelligere potestis atque valetis breves sententias proferre, hoc seminarium vobis convenit. Legetis scripta Senecae ita ut non modo placita eius discatis, sed etiam de philosophia loquamini. Consilium seminarii est exercere facultatem legendi, scribendi, et loquendi Latine dum philosophiam tractamus.
    Ad singulas scholas accipietis scripta Latine adnotata et locutiones. Post scholas vobis proponetur exercitium de arte scribendi ut extra scholas in scribendo vos exerceatis et vobis mittetur compendium grammaticae et vocabulorum textus lecti. Ad proximas scholas proponetur argumentum disputandum.
    Scribite, loquimini, et philosophamini Latine!

    If you can understand Latin when you hear it spoken, and are able to speak short sentences yourself, this seminar is right for you. Reading , learning about his ideas, and discussing the philosophical content, you will practise reading, writing, and speaking Latin at the same time as exercising your philosophical muscles. For each class you will receive an annotated Latin text along with a list of useful idiomatic Latin phrases. Afterwards you will be offered a writing exercise to do between classes, a summary of the grammar and vocabulary encountered in the text you have read, and the argument to be discussed in the next class. Join us to write, speak, and philosophise in Latin!