Core Conversations

Core Conversations is ACTC’s ongoing online lecture and discussion series. Each Core Conversation has two parts. In the first part we record an ACTC member sharing their thoughts about a core text they love (and love to teach) which we post to this website and ACTC’s YouTube Channel. Then for the second part, we host an online conversation about those remarks and texts on which they are based, which we also record and then post. All of our Core Conversations are free and open to the public.

When the pandemic made it impossible for us to gather in the Spring of 2020, and we were forced to cancel our annual conference, the ACTC membership became more aware than ever of the importance of our conversations about books, ideas, and our teaching of them—more aware of the importance of the communities our association supports. In the Fall of 2020, it was clear that the pandemic would not soon be over, we decided that we did not want to wait for travel to become easy again for us to reneconnect, and the Core Conversations series was born.

No one who I know believes that online conversations replicate the possibilities that emerge when open-minded people gather around a table with a good book and a serious commitment to working together to understand what it says and means. But, online conversations have their distinctive value, too, including their persistence over time.

You’ll find recordings here of past Core Conversations, links to our live sessions (to which you’re always invited!), and a schedule of upcoming events.