In the summer of 2016 the St. John’s College Graduate Institute in Santa Fe will offer four compelling, noncredit, discussion-focused programs in Homeric Greek, Islamic Classics, Cinema Studies, and a Screenwriting Workshop. These programs are open to college students, teachers, and anyone 18 and older interested in exploring and discussing these subjects. More information on these programs and our MA programs in Liberal Arts and Eastern Classics can be found here: www.sjc.edu/grad.

The Homeric Greek program is a rigorous course designed for students new to the language of Homer, and those who need to refresh their skills. The first four weeks focus on developing basic skills in the language, while the final five weeks consists of translation exercises with the Iliad and the Odyssey.

The Islamic Classics program is an 8-week course created to introduce inquisitive learners to the fundamental texts of Islam. Studies are divided between three different aspects of Islam: the Sufi literature of ‘Attar, Rumi, and Ibn al-‘Arabi; the Qur’an and Ibn Ishaq’s biography of Muhammad; and classics of Islamic philosophy and theology by Ibn Tufayl, Al-Farabi, Avicenna, Al-Ghazali, Averroes, and Ibn Khaldun.

The Cinema Studies program consists of two, four-week sessions designed to develop analytical skills for cinema comparable to those used with classical literature. Students may choose to take one or both sessions. The first session will cover films from Akira Kurosawa, as well as seminal German films from filmmakers such as Josef von Sternberg, Fritz Lang, and Georg Wilhelm Pabst. The second session will cover films from Kenji Mizoguchi, as well as films by French filmmakers such as René Clair, Jean Renoir, and Max Ophüls.

The Screenwriting Workshop will take a select group of qualified screenwriting students through an intensive four-week, seminar-style workshop in which each student has the opportunity to conceive, outline, write, rewrite, and polish a full-length screenplay over the course of four weeks.