Organized by Professor Verity Harte (Yale) and Professor M.M. McCabe (King’s College London), the Yale — King’s College London Plato Republic seminar meets annually, alternately in London and Yale. The seminar, which was recently featured in Yale News, brings together faculty and graduate students specializing in ancient philosophy from Yale and King’s College London, as well as invited faculty and graduate students from Cornell and invited faculty from other universities in both the US and UK (such as Cornell, Princeton, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Oxford, Toronto and University College London), who meet over the course of 5 days to read and discuss the Greek text of a book of the Republic.
To date, the seminar has met to read Book I (London: June 11–15th, 2007); Book II (Yale: June 9–13, 2008); Book III (London: June 15–19, 2009); Book IV (Yale: June 14–18, 2010); Book V (KCL: June 13–17, 2011); Book VI (Yale: June 18-22, 2012); Book VII (KCL: June 10-14, 2013); and Book VIII (Yale: June 9–13, 2014), and Book IX (London: June 8-12, 2015. The group will meet for the final leg of the project in Yale to read Book X in June 2016. Minutes of the seminar meetings (produced by the graduates of the current year’s host institution, Yale or King’s College London) are distributed to all participants in the seminar.The group will meet in London to read Book IX in June 2015. Minutes of the seminar meetings (produced by the graduates of the current year’s host institution, Yale or King’s College London) are distributed to all participants in the seminar.
In addition to the benefits of the seminar itself, the intensive nature of the seminar and its organization (five days during which participants lunch — and often dine — together), offers unparalleled opportunities for graduate participants to get to know and discuss their research with the distinguished group of international faculty as well as their London and Cornell graduate peers. Yale students working in ancient philosophy who have advanced to candidacy are eligible to receive financial support to travel to and participate in the London-based seminars.
The seminar is sponsored, at Yale, by the Provost’s Office and by the Whitney Humanities Center. For more information, contact: verity.harte@yale.edu