2025 - 2026 Meetings
The Old Guard's 84th Year
The Old Guard's 84th Year
Please Click on Links for Meeting Minutes
Sept 10
A Poetry Reading with Professor Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates
Award winning American writer and Professor Emerita in Creative Writing at Princeton University
Sept 17
The Second Quantum Revolution
Andrew Houck
Dean of the Princeton University School of Engineering and Applied Science and Anthony H.P. Lee '79 Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; inaugural co-director of the Princeton Quantum Initiative.
Sept 24
ArtYard’s Creative Commons
Jill Kearney
Founder and Executive Director of ArtYard, a contemporary art center based in Frenchtown, NJ
Oct 1
Perceptions of Princeton University Among Policy and Political Audiences
Gadi Dechter
Princeton University’s Vice President for Communications and Government Affairs
Oct 8
In COVID’s wake: How Our Politics Failed Us
Steve Macedo
Professor of Politics and the University Center for human Values
Oct 15
The Art and Science of Motorcycle Design
Michael Littman
Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and a 25-year Director of Undergraduate Studies in the MAE Department.
Oct 22
The Why, What, and How of Affordable Housing
Edward Truscelli
Executive Director of Princeton Community Housing
and
Merilyn Rovira
Managing Director of Impact Strategies and a Board Member of the Princeton Community Housing Development Corporation Board of Trustees
Oct 29
Looking Back to the Big Bang
Jo Dunkley
British Astrophysicist, member of the Royal Society and Professor Physics at Princeton University
Nov 5
From Haze to Hope: Tackling Air Pollution and Protecting Lung Health in a Changing Climate
Dr. Mary Rice
Director of the Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard School of Public Respiratory Health
Nov 12
Aspects of Arrogance
Thomas Kelly
Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University
Nov 19
Fitzgerald and Gatsby’s Editors and Publishers
Charles Scribner III
Art Historian, Editor, Lecturer, and a member of the family of publishers who worked closely with F. Scott Fitzgerald throughout his career.
Nov 26
No Meeting, Thanksgiving Week
Dec 3
Who Owns the Future? From Artificial Intelligence to Abundant Imagination
Ruha Benjamin
Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, 2024 MacArthur Fellowship “Genius Award” winner
Dec 10
The Rise and Fall of Constitutional Governments
Kim Scheppele
Professor of Sociology and International Affairs in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University.
Jan 7
Cancelled
Jan 14
Using AI to Find Insights in Historic Manuscripts
Sonia Yaco
Emerging Technologies Librarian for Rutgers University Libraries.
Jan 21
Beyond Gerrymandering: A Program to Protect Democracy in 2026
Samuel Wang
Founding director of the Electoral Innovation Lab at Princeton University
Jan 28
The Rule of Law as it Informs Military Leadership and Operations
Brigadier General Stephen Xenakis, MD
Member of the Executive Board at the Center for Ethics and Rule of Law, University Pennsylvania Law School, in conversation with George Bustin
Feb 4
Why the Hindenburg Had a Smoking Lounge: Essays in Unintended Consequences
Edward Tenner
Distinguished Scholar in the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation and Visiting Scholar in the History Dept. at Rutgers University
Feb 11
Ordinary Disasters: How I Stopped Being a Model Minority
Anne Cheng
Professor of English at Princeton University, affiliated faculty in the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies and on the Committee on Film Studies, and former director of the Program in American Studies
Feb 18
The Everywhere Millionaire: Who is Really Rich in America and How They Got There
Owen Zidar
Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University
Feb 25
The Laws of Thought: The Quest for a Mathematical Theory of the Mind
Tom Griffiths
Director of the Computational Cognitive Science Lab and the Princeton Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence
Mar 4
A Different America in a Different World
Anne-Marie Slaughter in Conversation with George Bustin
International Lawyer, foreign policy analyst, political scientist and public commentator
Mar 11
Beyond the One-Week Mission: Ethical Evolution in Global Surgery for Congenital Facial Anomalies
Dr. Joseph Vella
Assistant professor at the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, specializing in head and neck reconstruction following cancer resection and trauma, and pediatric cleft lip/palate and craniofacial reconstruction
Mar 18
Title
Michael Gordin
Dean of the College at Princeton University and one of the world’s leading historians of science
Mar 25
American Contradiction: A History of Revolution and Revenge from the 1950’s to Now
Paul Starr
Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University and Stuart Professor of communications and public affairs at Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs.
Apr 1
The Man Who Would Be King; Mohammad bin Salman and the Transformation of Saudi Arabia
Karen Elliott House
Pulitzer Prize -winning journalist with nearly five decades of experience covering Saudi Arabia
Apr 8
The Historical Incarceration Penalty in the United States
Ellora Derenoncourt
Asst. Professor of Economics at Princeton University and a member of the Industrial Relations Section of Princeton Economics
Apr 15
Navigating Women's Intercollegiate Sports in the Current Environment, at Princeton and Beyond
Carla Berube
Princeton University Head Women’s Basketball Coach
Apr 22
Campaign Finance and Politics in a Polarized Age
Brandice Wrone
Professor of Political Science at the Hoover Institution at Stanford and Director of Center for Revitalizing American Institutions
Apr 29
Title
Dr. Carolyn Gould
An infectious diseases physician and Medical Epidemiologist in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
May 6
Andrew Weissmann
Professor at NYU Law School, former Lead Prosecutor in Mueller’s Special Counsel’s Office, former chief of the Criminal Fraud Section of the U.S Department of Justice.
May 13
Title
Jacob Shapiro
John Foster Dules Professor of International Affairs at Princeton University.
May 20
Trump’s Attack on Higher Education
Joan Wallach Scott
Professor Emerita in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study.
A Poetry Reading with Professor Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates
Award winning American writer and Professor Emerita in Creative Writing at Princeton University
Sept 17
The Second Quantum Revolution
Andrew Houck
Dean of the Princeton University School of Engineering and Applied Science and Anthony H.P. Lee '79 Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; inaugural co-director of the Princeton Quantum Initiative.
Sept 24
ArtYard’s Creative Commons
Jill Kearney
Founder and Executive Director of ArtYard, a contemporary art center based in Frenchtown, NJ
Oct 1
Perceptions of Princeton University Among Policy and Political Audiences
Gadi Dechter
Princeton University’s Vice President for Communications and Government Affairs
Oct 8
In COVID’s wake: How Our Politics Failed Us
Steve Macedo
Professor of Politics and the University Center for human Values
Oct 15
The Art and Science of Motorcycle Design
Michael Littman
Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and a 25-year Director of Undergraduate Studies in the MAE Department.
Oct 22
The Why, What, and How of Affordable Housing
Edward Truscelli
Executive Director of Princeton Community Housing
and
Merilyn Rovira
Managing Director of Impact Strategies and a Board Member of the Princeton Community Housing Development Corporation Board of Trustees
Oct 29
Looking Back to the Big Bang
Jo Dunkley
British Astrophysicist, member of the Royal Society and Professor Physics at Princeton University
Nov 5
From Haze to Hope: Tackling Air Pollution and Protecting Lung Health in a Changing Climate
Dr. Mary Rice
Director of the Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard School of Public Respiratory Health
Nov 12
Aspects of Arrogance
Thomas Kelly
Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University
Nov 19
Fitzgerald and Gatsby’s Editors and Publishers
Charles Scribner III
Art Historian, Editor, Lecturer, and a member of the family of publishers who worked closely with F. Scott Fitzgerald throughout his career.
Nov 26
No Meeting, Thanksgiving Week
Dec 3
Who Owns the Future? From Artificial Intelligence to Abundant Imagination
Ruha Benjamin
Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, 2024 MacArthur Fellowship “Genius Award” winner
Dec 10
The Rise and Fall of Constitutional Governments
Kim Scheppele
Professor of Sociology and International Affairs in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University.
Jan 7
Cancelled
Jan 14
Using AI to Find Insights in Historic Manuscripts
Sonia Yaco
Emerging Technologies Librarian for Rutgers University Libraries.
Jan 21
Beyond Gerrymandering: A Program to Protect Democracy in 2026
Samuel Wang
Founding director of the Electoral Innovation Lab at Princeton University
Jan 28
The Rule of Law as it Informs Military Leadership and Operations
Brigadier General Stephen Xenakis, MD
Member of the Executive Board at the Center for Ethics and Rule of Law, University Pennsylvania Law School, in conversation with George Bustin
Feb 4
Why the Hindenburg Had a Smoking Lounge: Essays in Unintended Consequences
Edward Tenner
Distinguished Scholar in the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation and Visiting Scholar in the History Dept. at Rutgers University
Feb 11
Ordinary Disasters: How I Stopped Being a Model Minority
Anne Cheng
Professor of English at Princeton University, affiliated faculty in the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies and on the Committee on Film Studies, and former director of the Program in American Studies
Feb 18
The Everywhere Millionaire: Who is Really Rich in America and How They Got There
Owen Zidar
Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University
Feb 25
The Laws of Thought: The Quest for a Mathematical Theory of the Mind
Tom Griffiths
Director of the Computational Cognitive Science Lab and the Princeton Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence
Mar 4
A Different America in a Different World
Anne-Marie Slaughter in Conversation with George Bustin
International Lawyer, foreign policy analyst, political scientist and public commentator
Mar 11
Beyond the One-Week Mission: Ethical Evolution in Global Surgery for Congenital Facial Anomalies
Dr. Joseph Vella
Assistant professor at the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, specializing in head and neck reconstruction following cancer resection and trauma, and pediatric cleft lip/palate and craniofacial reconstruction
Mar 18
Title
Michael Gordin
Dean of the College at Princeton University and one of the world’s leading historians of science
Mar 25
American Contradiction: A History of Revolution and Revenge from the 1950’s to Now
Paul Starr
Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University and Stuart Professor of communications and public affairs at Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs.
Apr 1
The Man Who Would Be King; Mohammad bin Salman and the Transformation of Saudi Arabia
Karen Elliott House
Pulitzer Prize -winning journalist with nearly five decades of experience covering Saudi Arabia
Apr 8
The Historical Incarceration Penalty in the United States
Ellora Derenoncourt
Asst. Professor of Economics at Princeton University and a member of the Industrial Relations Section of Princeton Economics
Apr 15
Navigating Women's Intercollegiate Sports in the Current Environment, at Princeton and Beyond
Carla Berube
Princeton University Head Women’s Basketball Coach
Apr 22
Campaign Finance and Politics in a Polarized Age
Brandice Wrone
Professor of Political Science at the Hoover Institution at Stanford and Director of Center for Revitalizing American Institutions
Apr 29
Title
Dr. Carolyn Gould
An infectious diseases physician and Medical Epidemiologist in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
May 6
Andrew Weissmann
Professor at NYU Law School, former Lead Prosecutor in Mueller’s Special Counsel’s Office, former chief of the Criminal Fraud Section of the U.S Department of Justice.
May 13
Title
Jacob Shapiro
John Foster Dules Professor of International Affairs at Princeton University.
May 20
Trump’s Attack on Higher Education
Joan Wallach Scott
Professor Emerita in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study.