UCLA Will Host 2002 Summer Seminar

The Objectivist Center will hold its thirteenth annual summer seminar at the University of California at Los Angeles, from Saturday June 29 to Saturday July 6. The UCLA campus, situated on a lushly landscaped 419-acre site in the Westwood area of Los Angeles, is one of the most beautiful urban university settings in the nation. It is bordered on the north by the protected wilderness of the Santa Monica Mountains and on the south by Westwood Village.

The Los Angeles area offers an abundance of things to do. The UCLA Center for the Performing Arts, the Fowler Museum of Cultural History, the UCLA Hammer Museum, and the Geffen Playhouse make UCLA the leading arts and culture center of the West. And the city of Los Angeles offers first-rate museums, family attractions, cultural events, shops, entertainment, and fine restaurants.

The seminar's foundation is a strong program of more than sixty lectures, courses, and workshops. The program includes presentations in philosophy, politics and culture, arts, and applications of Objectivism. "I learned more in one week here than in one year of college," said a student from Duke University who attended last year's seminar.

Returning to speak this year are a number of seminar veterans—including Nathaniel Branden, historian David Mayer, artist Michael Newberry, philosophers Stephen Hicks and Eric Mack, and political activists Ed Hudgins and Stephen Moses—and they will be joined by a number of new speakers.

Afternoon workshops will give participants the opportunity to discuss philosophers such as David Hume and John Locke, learn persuasive writing techniques, and discover better exercise and nutrition habits. This year's evening program includes lectures ranging from writing poetry and enjoying opera to private property and global warming. There will also be two week-long courses on Ayn Rand's philosophy, an introductory course on Objectivism surveying the key ideas of the philosophy, and an advanced-intermediate course. "You can't discuss a broader range of topics with a more talented group of individuals anywhere else," said Jay Friedenberg, a professor of philosophy at Manhattan College.

"The summer seminar is a rare opportunity to be in an environment where my core beliefs are the norm and to attend lectures that help me expand and extend those core beliefs," said Jordan Zimmerman, a computer programmer and TOC Sponsor from Monterey, California.

Every year the seminar provides first-class Objectivist education in an informal setting. Most of the faculty stay for the week to discuss their ideas over dinner or late into night in the common room, giving participants the opportunity to dig deeper into ideas with them. "I can't think of a better way to spend my July Fourth week," said Greg Perkins, a software engineer for Hewlett Packard and TOC sponsor from Boise, Idaho. "We get to hear fascinating talks by top-notch thinkers and professionals, while surrounded by a community of friends and scholars, doing our best to saturate ourselves as we become more and more sleep-deprived in a futile effort to drink it all in!"

But the program is only one aspect of the seminar. The social dimension has also made the conference a rewarding experience. As Paul Cohen of Columbia, Maryland, stated, "I positively loved every moment. The seminars were thought-provoking, and the social life was wonderful and soul-refreshing." To make it easy for people to get to know each other, the center hosts a reception for first-time attendees and then its opening-day barbecue. Every night, the common room is open into the small hours for conversation and debate. And the conference always ends with a gala banquet that includes dinner and dancing.

A brochure with full information about the seminar will be mailed in late January and posted on TOC's Web site.