convocations

Tag: convocations

Acclaimed philosopher, author Kwame Anthony Appiah discusses honor, citizenship in Lawrence convocation

Award-winning philosopher and foreign policy writer Kwame Anthony Appiah examines questions of honor and societal obligation Tuesday, Feb. 17 in a Lawrence University convocation.

Kwame-Appiah_newsblog
Scholar Kwame Anthony Appiah examines questions of honor and societal obligation in a Feb. 17 Lawrence University convocation.

A professor of philosophy and law at New York University, Appiah presents “A Decent Respect: Honor and Citizenship at Home and Abroad” at 11:10 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. He also will also conduct a question-and-answer session in the Warch Campus Center cinema at 2:30 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.

Named one of the “Top 100 Global Thinkers” in 2010 by Foreign Policy magazine, the London-born Appiah challenges audiences to consider the big questions: what does it mean to be a citizen of the world?; what is a person’s obligations to others?; should larger obligations always trump concerns for family, friends and local communities?

Cambridge University educated — he earned both his bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. there — Appiah has written extensively on a wide range of topics, from foundations of probabilistic semantics to African and African-American literary and cultural studies.

Included on Forbes magazine’s 2009 list of the world’s “seven most powerful thinkers,” Appiah was honored with the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for his 1992 book “In My Father’s House.”  Charles Johnson of The New York Times declared it “one of the handful of theoretical works on race that will help preserve our humanity.”

His 2010 book, “The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen,” focuses on how human morality is continuously shaped and altered around definitions and traditions of honor.

Appiah has been recognized with dozens of honors and awards, among them the 2011 National Humanities Medal “for seeking eternal truths in the contemporary world,” election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society and induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2015 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Engaged learning, the development of multiple interests and community outreach are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

 

 

Matriculation Convocation Officially Opens Lawrence’s 166th Academic Year

President Mark Burstein officially opens Lawrence University’s 166th academic year as well as the 2014-15 convocation series Thursday, Sept. 18 with the matriculation address “Sustaining Dialogue: Educating for a Diverse Society.”

The event, at 11:10 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel, is free and open to the public. The convocation also will be available via a live webcast.

Mark-Burstein_newsblog2014
President Mark Burstein

In his address, Burstein will discuss the importance of dialogue across different viewpoints and the role universities must play to foster this engaged exchange. As our society becomes more segregated by socioeconomic class, race, and political view, universities, as training grounds for citizenry, are obligated to create campus communities where a diversity of viewpoints are explored.  Last spring’s rash of cancelled commencement speakers calls into question whether universities are fulfilling this role.

Lawrence’s 16th president, Burstein began his tenure in July 2013 after nine years as executive vice president at Princeton University. Prior to that, he spent 10 years at Columbia University as a vice president working in human resources, student services and facilities management.

A native of Cedar Grove, N.J., Burstein earned a bachelor’s degree in history and independent studies from Vassar College and a master of business administration degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Lawrence’s 2014-15 convocation series also includes:

David-Gerard_newsblog2014 copy_edited-1
David Gerard
Kwame-Anthony-Appiah_newblog
Kwame Appiah
Sian-Beilock_newsblog
Sian Beilock

• Nov. 4, University of Chicago psychologist Sian Beilock, “Leveraging Mind And Body To Perform Your Best Under Stress.” Beilock is an expert on the brain science behind “choking under pressure” and the many factors that influence different types of performance, from test-taking to your golf swing.

• Feb. 17, 2015, Author and New York University Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah, “A Decent Respect: Honor and Citizenship at Home and Abroad.” Known as a postmodern Socrates, Appiah asks probing questions about identity, ethnicity, honor and religion while challenging people to celebrate our common humanity.

• May 14, 2015, Honors Convocation, Lawrence University economist David Gerard, “Is it Warm in Here?: The Intractable Challenges of Climate Change.” Gerard will examine the economic, social and technological obstacles confronting the issue of global climate change.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2015 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

Convocation Series Welcomes Global Health Pioneer Dr. Paul Farmer

Internationally renowned medical anthropologist Dr. Paul Farmer delivers the Lawrence University convocation “In the Company of the Poor” Tuesday, April 22 at 11:10 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. He also will conduct a question-and-answer session at 2:30 in the Warch Campus Center. Both events are free and open to the public.

Farmer’s convocation also will be webcast live at htttp://www.livestream.com/lawrenceuniversity beginning at 11 o’clock.

Dr.Paul-Farmer_newsblog
Dr. Paul Farmer

A professor of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School, Farmer pioneered community-based treatment strategies of high-quality health care in impoverished settings worldwide. Named one of the “Best 100 Global Thinkers” by Foreign Policy magazine, Farmer is a founding director of Partners in Health, an organization dedicated to providing health care to the world’s poor. He was recognized with a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation MacArthur “genius” fellowship in 1993.

Influenced as an undergraduate at Duke University by the liberation theology of Catholic clergy resisting dictator rule in Central America and the public health practice of 19th-century German physician and scientist Rudolf Virchow, Farmer felt compelled to improve the situation of global health among the world’s poorest populations.

Farmer began working toward that goal in Haiti while completing his medical degree and medical anthropology doctorate through Harvard Medical School. Over a decade’s span, he introduced medical techniques that cured infectious diseases for a fraction of the cost such treatment would be in a U.S. hospital. These cost-effective, high-quality technologies have since been implemented by Partners in Health  in the Navajo Nation in the United State as well as in Lesotho, Malawi, Mexico, Peru, Rwanda and Russia.

Farmer’s efforts were chronicled in Tracy Kidder’s New York Times bestseller “Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World.” Farmer has written extensively about global health and human rights and serves as U.N. Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Community-based Medicine and Lessons from Haiti.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2014 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

 

Author Lynda Barry Brings Gospel of Creativity to Lawrence University Convocation

Award-winning cartoonist and author Lynda Barry brings her message of tapping into your innate creativity to Lawrence University in the convocation “Crossing the Fox River: From Thought to Action.”

The third presentation in the college’s 2012-13 convocation series, Barry’s address on Thursday, Jan. 24 at 11:10 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel, is free and open to the public.

Lynda Barry

Barry has enjoyed a 35-year career as a cartoonist that began as an undergraduate at Washington State’s Evergreen State College, where she shared her comic strips with Evergreen classmate Matt Groening, the future creator of the TV hit show “The Simpsons,” who secretly slipped them into the school newspaper.

Along the way, she forged a unique path in the art world. Her weekly comic strip “Ernie Pook’s Comeek,” which ran in alternative newspapers from 1979-2008, is widely credited with expanding the literary, thematic and emotional range of American comics.

A truly multidisciplinary artist, Barry is the author of 18 books, has worked as a commentator for NPR and written monthly features for a numerous magazines, among them Esquire, Mother Jones, Mademoiselle and Salon. She recorded a spoken word album called “The Lynda Barry Experience,” adapted her first novel, “The Good Times are Killing Me,” into an off-Broadway play and has been a guest of David Letterman on his television show numerous times.

A Wisconsin native who makes her home today in rural Rock County, Barry conducts more than a dozen writing workshops a year, including some specifically for non-writers in which she coaxes her students to find that part of the brain where the story-telling talent resides.

Barry has been honored with numerous awards for her work, including two Eisner Awards, which honor creative achievement in American comic books. Her illustrated novel “Cruddy” has been translated into French, Italian, German, Catalan and Hebrew and her book “One! Hundred! Demons!” was required reading in 2008 for all incoming Stanford University freshmen.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2013 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries. Follow Lawrence on Facebook.

Thought Into Action: Matriculation Convocation Opens Lawrence University’s 164th Academic Year

President Jill Beck

Under the theme “Thought into Action,” President Jill Beck opens Lawrence University’s 164th academic year and the 2012-13 convocation series Thursday, Sept. 13 with the annual matriculation address.

The convocation, at 11:10 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel, is free and open to the public.  It will be Beck’s final matriculation convocation. In February she announced her plans to retire at the end of the 2012-13 academic year.

Named president in 2004, Beck is the college’s 15th — and only woman — president. In 2009, Forbes.com named Beck a “barrier breaker,” one of 15 female college presidents on Forbes’ list of America’s 50 Best Colleges. A native of Worcester, Mass., she earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and art history from Clark University, a master’s degree in history and music from McGill University, and the Ph.D. in theatre from City University of New York.

Kathrine Handford

Beck will be joined by Kathrine Handford, lecturer of music and university organist and award-winning filmmaker Catherine Tatge, artist-in-residence.

Catherine Tatge ’72

Handford presents “Connecting the Dots: An Organ Studio Transformed” that will focus on a trip she led last March to Paris with a half dozen student organ majors while Tatge will present “Telling Stories That Matter.”

As part of the convocation, a clip from a documentary film made about the trip to France, “A World of Sound: American Organists in Paris,” directed by 2012 Lawrence graduate Mark Hirsch will be shown, junior Mathias Reed will perform on Lawrence’s Brombaugh tracker organ and senior Alexis VanZalen will present the address “Music, Meaning, and My Experience with French Organ Culture.”

Other speakers on Lawrence’s 2012-13 convocation series include:

• Oct. 11, 2012 — Larry Robertson, award-winning author and founder of Lighthouse Consulting, which guides entrepreneurial ventures, their leaders, and those who invest in them.

• Jan. 24, 2013 — Lynda Barry, author and nationally syndicated cartoonist known for her comic strip “Ernie Pook’s Comeek” and the books “The Good Times are Killing Me” and “What It Is.”

• April 16, 2013 — Bill Viola, contemporary video artist who explores New Media through electronic, sound, and image technology.

• May 23, 2013 — Claudena Skran, professor of government and Edwin and Ruth West Professor of Economics and Social Science at Lawrence.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a world-class conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2013 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,450 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries. Follow Lawrence on Facebook.