Student Programs
Reading Groups
Outside of the classroom, the heart of the intellectual community at SCL are reading groups. Each semester, students get together in groups of 8-12 to read and explore some of the great texts of our tradition. Plato, Augustine, Hume, Jefferson, Arendt—nothing is off limits. The only criterion is that that the text in some way speak to the set of questions which animates the school—What is a human being? What does it mean to live well? What do we owe one another? Reading groups meet, on average, for 6-7 weeks over the course of the semester. No preparation is required. Students and faculty who participate simply show up each week to read together and try to make sense of the text that they have in front of them.
Spring 2026 Reading Groups
Plato, Alcibiades I
Is self-knowledge required for rule? Participants will engage in a close reading of a short Platonic dialogue, Alcibiades I, where Socrates converses with a young man of great political promise, Alcibiades. In this dialogue, Socrates takes up the question of what role self-knowledge plays in political ambition. We will focus especially on the famous mirror analogy, according to which the self can be seen by looking into the pupil of another’s eye––an “image in the eye”––just as a soul that seeks to know itself can be known by looking into the soul of another.
Participating students will examine in close detail the arguments that Mill puts forth in defense of free speech in his monumental work On Liberty. Special attention will be paid to the moral psychology which Mill develops, to the distinction Mill introduces between ‘dead dogmas’ and ‘living convictions, and to the role that rigorous argument and debate play in forming the latter and freeing us from the former.”
Coffee with the Professor
‘Coffee with the Professor’ offers students a chance to connect with faculty members, both from UT and beyond, over coffee and conversation. Each session will bring together a small group of 10–15 students with a professor to explore a theme, question, or short reading connected to the professor’s research or teaching interests. No advance reading or preparation is required. Sessions will last about an hour and take place every few weeks.
Plato in Performance
The Plato in Performance series invites students to encounter Plato in a new way: aloud, together, and as a living dramatic event. Each semester, we select one of Plato’s dialogues, read it collectively in a semi-theatrical format (costumes encouraged!), and then gather for discussion. In Fall 2025, we read the Laches.
