About 2400 years ago Plato internalized the debating voices he heard around him in Athens and invented the philosophical dialogue. We grateful heirs to his dialectical way of thinking have turned those voices inside out. An increasingly plausible Socrates, Dr. Soderholm has been at the centre of this emerging web of intellectual activity as he attempts to play the ancient roles of midwife, gadfly, and torpedo fish.
Dialogic Imaginations is a work-in-progress guided by the spirit of Ralph Waldo Emerson: “All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.”
James Soderholm took his Ph.D. in British Literature from the University of Virginia. Dr. Soderholm has published five books, including
Platonic Occasions: Dialogues on Art, Literature and Culture (with Richard Begam, Stockholm University Press, 2015). He has recently published
Prince Hamlet. He is working on a novella, an experimental work on aesthetics, and a book on hands.
Cal Hewitt is researching his Ph.D. in Neutrino Physics. Sometimes, he gets distracted.
Kyle Blaus-Plissner enjoys wordplay in all forms, spoken or written. A student of The Great Silence, he resides in Colorado, United States, where he often veers off of the established trails of mountains and conversations.
Moses May-Hobbs lives in Marseille, where he is getting stronger and reading sonnets.
Henry Baxter lives in Cambridge, where he is now reading for an MPhil in Early Modern Literature.
Melkon Charchoglyan is a journalist, writer and photographer from Armenia. After graduating with a degree in Classics from the University of St Andrews, he went on to become a travel writer and editor. Now he's the 2021 Helen Deutsch Fellow at Boston University's School of Creative Writing, where he writes and teaches fiction, as well as dabbling in Russian literary translation.
Grace Clover is an ex-langtonian who studied English, History and German A-Level and has gone on to study joint honours History and German Literature at Wadham College Oxford as of Autumn 2020.
Lyall Rosgill is an avid nonconformist. In his free time he enjoys wartime poetry and listening to the odd bit of John Coltrane.
Amelia Liddell is no one thing, but if pushed, she'd say "veterinarian". She fancies herself a bit of everything, as she has an insatiable fear of missing out. She is soon to move to a tiny island in the middle of the Arabian Sea in search of ancient reptiles.
Leandra Bernstein is a journalist in Washington, D.C. covering the daily revolutions of the widening gyre. A student of chance, she has no plans to graduate. She is scrappy, optimistic, and the owner of an impressive closet of skeletons.
Charles Noble is 18 years old and hopes to read History at University once he has completed his studies at the Langton. In between studying Maths, German and History, Charles enjoys provoking debates in lessons and challenging the views of his peers. When he’s not studying he can be found on the golf-course or playing music.
Zoë Abrams is 16 years old, and currently studying History, Politics, English and Spanish at the Langton. Alongside a keen interest in leftist political theory and sociology, Zoë enjoys acting, singing, playing classical guitar, and has been diarying for three years. She has two cats and has been known to cackle like a witch from time to time.
Alice Abrams is a student at the Langton, studying Philosophy, History, English and Spanish. She enjoys debating and all forms of writing, but particularly poems and letters. When not enjoying these pursuits, she is often found conversing with her cat, Mini, who she firmly believes to be a human trapped in feline form.
Ophelia Gregory is a writer of dialogues that are so outrageous they cannot be published. A controversial figure since pre-school she now studies the Classics, German and English. In her spare time, she also has a love for playing the Double Bass (badly) and generally being regarded as the devil incarnate.
Joshua Gawley is a Langton student currently studying A-levels in Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Computer Science. He has a passion for computer science and philosophy, hoping to read the former at university; and he is particularly obsessed with the possibilities of artificial intelligence and the search for a computational theory of everything.
Josie Orr is 17 and currently studies A-Level Politics, Maths, and Fine Art at the Langton. After finding an interest in post-truth she completed an EPQ on the topic, and followed up by writing this dialogue.
Ali-Reza Omidvar is a Langton student who is obsessed with poetry, mysticism and Philosophy. After his migration to the UK and his later conversion to Christianity, he wrote a book comprising an analysis on the religio-political differences between eastern and western countries and some mystical poems. His plan is to first study Philosophy and then continue his further study in law.
Rose Pettengell is studying Paramedic Science but has a deep interest in English literature and history. She believes that Webster's Bosola is far more darkly interesting than Shakespeare's Hamlet.
Lily Begg is a student of French and Italian who spends a lot of her time wondering whether the world is a good place or a bad place. She spends the rest of her free time doing things like growing plants and smashing the patriarchy.
Thomas Newton is a passionate physicist -- following in the footsteps of fellow dialogue author, Cal Hewitt, with regards to command of the LUCID project -- who has a persistent interest in the theatrical arts. A desire to bridge the culture gap between the arts and sciences inspired his approach to his dialogue and is something he hope to preserve when pursuing physics studies at university.
M.E. Rolle is a PhD candidate in Creative Writing at the University of Surrey. When she isn't staring hopelessly at a computer screen, she takes the train into London and wanders the city, taking photos.
Daniel Appiah is an old Langtonian currently reading History and Politics at the University of Exeter. Dan's contemplation of speech acts and the philosophy of language yields no consolation, but the free and frank exchange of ideas is consolation enough. He continues to strive to achieve a Stoic ideal, and knows he will not.
Adam Nell-Millard is 18, and currently studying History, Philosophy, and Mathematics. He hopes to continue studying Philosophy in the future. He is particularly interested in topics relating to human nature and concerned with the human relationship to death and religious belief.
Melissa Orr studied A-levels in Philosophy, Fine Art, and Mathematics at the Langton. After completing a gap year of work experience and travelling she hopes to read Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at university.
Drishti Rai is an 18 year old with a passion for economics and academia. She plans to study the former at university, having completed A levels in maths, further maths, physics, and economics. She also runs a blog:
thedismalstudy.wordpress.com