Athenaeum

A signature program of the Claremont McKenna College experience. Welcome to Athenaeum! We look forward to seeing you at the Ath. Priya Junnar
Athenaeum Director

Unique in American higher education, the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum (the “Ath”) is a signature program of Claremont McKenna College. Four nights a week during the school year, the Ath brings scholars, public figures, thought leaders, artists, and innovators to engage with the CMC and Claremont College community. In addition, the Ath also hosts lunch speakers, roundtables, and smaller presentations in its two auxiliary dining rooms. For decades, the Ath has hosted a spectrum of luminaries with expertise and insight on a wide range of topics, both historical and contemporary. In the Ath’s intimate yet stimulating setting, students, faculty, staff, and other community members gather to hear the speaker, pose questions, and to build community and exchange ideas over a shared meal. At the core of the Ath is a longstanding commitment to student growth and learning. Central to the Ath are its student fellows, selected annually to host, introduce, and moderate discussion with the featured speaker. Priority is given to students in attendance during the question-and-answer session following every presentation. Moreover, speakers often take extra time to visit a class, meet with student interest groups, or give an interview to the student press and podcast team.

10/19/2023

Join the Athenaeum at CMC on Thursday evening (Oct. 19) for the first installment of the new Athenaeum Concert Series!

This year, the series of musical performances throughout the academic year focuses on the theme Renewal from Ashes – War, Destruction, Remembrance, Peace. In the first concert, “War,” come listen to the Bijoux Saxophone Duo (Aiwen Zhang and Valentin Kovalev) explore the fascinating ways in which composers react to periods of conflict and change, and how their works continue to resonate with us today. The Bijoux Saxophone Duo are world-class performers, featuring some of the best young saxophonists in the country right now – don’t miss this exclusive concert!

Registration is open to all 5Cs.
https://www.cmc.edu/athenaeum/athenaeum-concert-series-renewal-ashes-war

09/11/2023

Welcome back – the fall semester at the Athenaeum begins today!

Swipe to see our first lineup of speakers and sign up via our bio link. From government, to culture, to photography, to economics – a diverse range of topics and speakers awaits you at the Ath, a signature program at Claremont McKenna.

Which event will you attend?

05/10/2023

Congratulations to our Ath Fellows Miriam Farah ’23 and Abe Vasquez ’23 who will be graduating this Saturday!

Thank you for your leadership and dedication to the Athenaeum this year. Your support helped make the Ath successful. You will be missed!

05/04/2023

Congratulations to our third and final retiring staff member, Lydia Aguiar. Lydia has been the face of the Athenaeum front office for 16 years. Always willing to go the extra distance for any student, faculty, or staff, Lydia prides herself on being helpful wherever and whenever needed.

The secret to her tenure at the Ath, she says, has been her love of being around young people and their open curiosity. Like her Ath colleagues, Lydia is most thankful for the students she has met over the years. What makes her the proudest is when, years later people come back and specifically remember her. Gifts and cards from generations of students adorn her office.

Though retiring from the Atheaneum, Lydia is not quite ready to retire full time and instead will transition to a lighter schedule, helping around the College as needed.

Read our special interview with Lydia: https://www.cmc.edu/athenaeum/historical-archives/2023-ath-retirements

Don’t forget to join us tomorrow Friday, May 5, 3-4:30pm for a special Ath tea to celebrate the incredible service and dedication of our retiring staff members, and to share your own remarks!

05/04/2023

Congratulations to our second retiring staff member, Chef David Skinner. For nearly 32 years, he has put his passion for cooking into service for generations of CMC students, as well as for faculty, staff, and the greater community. It wasn’t just a job for Chef Dave – it was a calling which he embraced with creativity, responsibility, and pride of craft. An advocate for using fresh, local ingredients, Chef was an early adopter of the California cuisine movement that revolutionized the culinary world. He also mentored hundreds of students in the kitchen, even inspiring some to pursue careers in the food industry. In retirement, Chef hopes to dabble in catering, food demos, and private cooking, but his primary focus will be his golf game and travel adventures with his wife. In summing up his experience at CMC, Chef says he was: “Lucky. I was so fortunate to work with generations of students over all these years. What an opportunity for me!”

Read our special interview with Chef Dave: https://www.cmc.edu/athenaeum/historical-archives/2023-ath-retirements

Stay tuned tomorrow as we recognize our final retiring staff member.

Join us this Friday, May 5, 3-4:30pm for a special Ath tea to celebrate their incredible service and dedication, and to share your own remarks.

05/03/2023

The bittersweet time has come to celebrate three important staff members who are retiring from the Athenaeum this year.

Congratulations to the one-and-only David Edwards, who has served as Athenaeum manager for over 36 years. When he joined the Ath team in October 1986, John K. Roth, co-founder of the PPE program, was serving as the director of the Athenaeum.

With indelible wit and humor, David has helped manage thousands (yes, thousands) of Athenaeum events over the years. Yet he is most proud of the relationships he has developed with students, watching them develop at CMC, and then come back as successful alumni and even trustees. Some of the student workers he mentored now have their own children at CMC.

David promises to visit the Athenaeum often in retirement, though his primary focus will be to make sure that his four-month-old grandson Luke is a regular at the Los Angeles Zoo. Summing up his tenure at CMC, David asserts that “Every day was a new adventure!”

Read our special interview with Dave here: https://www.cmc.edu/athenaeum/historical-archives/2023-ath-retirements.

Stay tuned this week as we continue to recognize our retiring staff members.

Join us this Friday, May 5, 3-4:30pm for a special Ath tea to celebrate their incredible service and dedication, and to share your own remarks.

04/13/2023

Cornel West, a prolific author, professor of philosophy, and Black public intellectual, visited the Athenaeum on March 23 for a wide-ranging conversation on race, sponsored by the Presidential Initiative on Anti-Racism and the Black Experience in America and the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies.

With decades of experience teaching at Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and currently at Union Theological Seminary, West greeted several colleagues and friends in attendance and engaged openly and warmly with many members of the packed audience.

Watch his Ath talk "Race Matters" on the CMC Youtube channel – link in bio.

📸 : Sidney Smith IV ’25

03/31/2023

Ath Fellows are critical in helping suggest speakers as well as hosting them during their visits. This includes sitting at the head table with guests and leading the question-and-answer session after the formal presentation.

The Ath Fellows will be hosting casual, informational sessions about the fellowship at Ath Tea on:

- Monday, April 3, 3:45 to 4:15 pm
- Thursday, April 6, 3:45 to 4:15 pm

Gain valuable experience and be a part of this Athenaeum tradition since 1983! Apply via Handshake by April 12 – link in bio.

03/30/2023

Meet Yahjairi Castillon ’26, an International Relations major and Crown Hall resident from Carbondale, Colorado.

"I love working at the Ath because I get to listen to all these fantastic speakers while working and hanging out with the Ath crew. The clean-up is my favorite part of the night," she said.

"My favorite Ath Dessert is the chocolate mousse!"

03/10/2023

Before you head out to Spring Break, take a look at the Ath events open for registration through March 29.

Register now: https://www.cmc.edu/athenaeum/open-events

03/10/2023

Tom Linebarger ’86 shared his leadership lessons in a recent talk at the Athenaeum including living a purpose-driven life.

“When I tell somebody that I'm scared or worried, they actually think I'm a better leader, not worse, which was, of course, not intuitive to me,” he said.

https://www.cmc.edu/news/learning-live-purpose-driven-life

03/07/2023

It's time for another Ath Eats recipe! 🍽️

If you're looking for a vegetarian dish for your next get-together, try our moussaka! Made with eggplant, sun-dried tomatoes, and fingerling potatoes, this dish is sure to satisfy.

Screenshot the recipe in our stories, and find it with other recipes in our Ath Eats highlight on Instagram.

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