University and Messenger Lectures Archive
2024-2025
- Sendhil Mullainathan, The Peter de Florez Professor, In Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and in Economics, Massachusetts Institute for Technology. Messenger Lectures: Tools of Thought: Building Algorithms, Incorporating Behavioral Science into Computational Science and Incorporating Algorithms into Economics and Policy
2023-24
- Moon Duchin, Professor, Mathematics, Tufts University, Professor, Tisch College, and John Dibiaggio Professor of Citizenship and Public Service, Mathematics. University Lecture: Algorithms, Race, and Redistricting: Can Computers Find Fairness?
- Robin Coste Lewis, former poet laureate of Los Angeles, writer-in-residence at the University of Sothern California, as well as a Cave Canem fellow and a fellow of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities. University Lecture: To the Realization of Perfect Helplessness
- Anupama Rao, Professor of History, Barnard College, and MESAAS, Columbia University. University Lecture: Caste, Outcaste, Anticaste: Reflections on Worldmaking
- Gil Anidjar, Professor, Departments of Religion and Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies, Columbia University. Messenger Lectures: Freud’s Mothers: The Woman Hagar and the Monotheistic Religion, Two Mothers in Heaven: Inventing the Perfect Mother, and Mama’s Baby: Race and Religion
- Alexander Rudensky, Chair, Immunology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute and Director of The Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. University Lecture: Dominant Tolerance
2021-22
- Professor Emerita Jennifer Robertson, Anthropology and History of Art, Departments of Anthropology and the History of Art, and the Penny W. School of Art & Design, and Affiliate Professor, Robotics Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is also Affiliate Professor, Departments of Anthropology and Japan Studies, University of Washington, Seattle. University Lecture: Robo-Sexism: Gendering AI and Robots in Japan and the United States (and Elsewhere). Lecture video recording.
- Willa Cather Professor Emerita Sidnie White Crawford, Classics and Religious Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Visiting Scholar at Princeton Theological Seminary; Messenger Lectures: Archaeology, Science and the Dead Sea Scrolls, A Library at Qumran? How to Identify a Library in the Ancient World, and Scribes and Scrolls: Scribalism in the Ancient World and the Dead Sea Scrolls
2020-2021 No University or Messenger Lectures due to COVID-19
2019-20
- Professor Lizabeth Cohen, Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies, Harvard University; University Lecture: Struggling to Save America’s Cities in the Suburban Age: Urban Renewal Reconsidered
- Dr. David Katz, MD, MPH, FACPM, FACP, FACLM,Founder and CEO of DietID; University Lecture: The Truth about Food: Lifestyle Medicine for People and Planet
- Dr. Mark M. Davis, Professor, Microbiology and Immunology; Director of the Stanford Institute for Immunology, Transplantation and Infection; Stanford University; Howard Hughes Investigator. University Lecture: Standing on the Shoulders of Mice: Rebooting Human Immunology.
2018-19
- Professor Dolph Schluter, Canada Research Chair in Evolution, University of British Columbia. University Lecture: Divergence via biotic interactions in an adaptive radiation.
- Tristram Stuart, Scholar, Entrepreneur and Activist. University Lecture: Food waste & what we can do about it
- Leroy F. Moore, Jr., Artist, Author, Activist, and Founder of Krip-Hop Nation. University Lecture: Black/Brown International Disability Art/Krip-Hop.
- Dr. Henry Bial, Professor of Theatre, University of Kansas. University Lecture: The Gatekeepers: New York Theatre Critics and the Policing of Religion on the American Stage”
- Dr. Carol Anelli,Professor of Entomology, Ohio State University. University Lecture: With Usual Daring on Untried Paths: Anna Botsford Comstock–Educational Trailblazer, Author and Scientific Illustrator
- Wendy Brown,Professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley. University Lecture: Theorizing Freedom at the Conjuncture of Neoliberalism, White Nationalism and Authoritarianism
2017-18
Spring 2018
Christina Crosby, Professor of English and Gender and Sexuality Studies at Wesleyan University. Lecture: “Faithful to the Place of Bones”
Fall 2017
- Messenger Lecturer: Scott Aaronson, Professor, University of Texas at Austin. Lectures: Lecture 1: “Complexity-Theoretic Foundations of Quantum Supremacy Experiments”; Lecture 2: Quantum Computing and the Limits of the Efficiently Computable”; Lecture 3: “New Results on Learning and Reconstruction of Quantum States”
- University Lecturer: Zafer Şenocak, Creative Writer and Public Intellectual. Lecture: “Imagining Migration in Contemporary Europe: A Literary Author’s Perspective”
- University Lecturer: Raul Andino, Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of California, San Francisco. Lecture: “RNA virus evolution, infection and new vaccines for humans and animals”
- University Lecturer: Richard Harris, Science Correspondent at National Public Radio, Washington, DC. Lecture: “Rigor Mortis. Returning delight and rigor to science”
- University Lecturer: Stephanie W. Jamison, Professor, Asian Languages and Cultures, UCLA. Lecture: “Adulterous Woman to Be Eaten by Dogs: Women and Law in Ancient India”
2016-17
Spring 2017
- University Lecturer: Professor Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Chief Curator, Core Exhibition, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews; University Professor Emerita, New York University. Lecture: Materializing History: Time and Telos at POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
- University Lecturer: Seth Siegel, Author. Lecture: Title: A Global Water Crisis Is Coming: What Can We Do To Avoid It?
Fall 2016
- University Lecturer: Professor Jaak Panksepp, Professor of Veterinary Science, Washington State University. Lecture: The Emotional Feelings of Other (Animal Brains: From Cross-Species Nero-Affective Foundations to Novel Psychiatric Therapeutics
- University Lecturer: Professor John Rickford, J.E. Wallace Sterling Professor of Linguistics and the Humanities, Stanford University. Lecture: Justice for Jeantel (and Trayvon): Fighting Dialect Prejudice in Courtrooms and Beyond
2015-16
Fall 2015
- Messenger Lecturer: Professor Thomas H. Jordan, University Southern California and Director, Southern California Earthquake Center. Lecture: Trial of the L’Aquila Seven: How an Unforetold Seismic Catastrophe Changed Operation Hazard Forecasting
- University Lecturer: Gina Apostol, Novelist and Essayist. Lecture: The Filipino-American War and the Writing of a Novel: Reflections on History and the Art of Fiction
- University Lecturer: Dr. Amara Lakhous, Bilingual Writer. Lectures: Lecture 1: Becoming a Writer: The Story of My Dream – Lecture 2: Why is Europe Failing at the Issue of Immigration – Lecture 3: Why Narrating Immigration Through Images is More Effective Today
- University Lecturer: Professor David Kaplan, Johns Hopkins University. Lecture: Particles and the Nature of All Things
- University Lecturer: Professor Stephen Long, University of Illinois. Lecture: Can We Feed and Fuel the World From Plants by 2050? Scientific vs. Social Barriers
- Messenger Lecturer: Professor Karl Deisseroth, Stanford University. Lectures: Lecture 1: Illuminating the Brain; Lecture 2: Optical Technologies for Neuroscience; Lecture 3: Optical Investigation of Fully-Assembled Biological Systems
- Messenger Lecturer: Professor Cecilia Vicuna, Poet and multidisciplinary artist. Lectures & Performances: Quipu and the Quanta of Language; The Poem is the Animal; Awareness is the Art: Artists for Democracy
and Other Stories - University Lecturer: Professor Yoko Tawada, Contempory Japanese-German Prose Writer. Lectures: Multilingual Literary Reading, in German, Japanese, English and Other Surprises
- University Lecturer: Joel Salatin, Polyface Farms, Inc., Virginia. Lecture: Can We Feed the World?
2014-15
Spring 2015
- University Lecturer: Professor Allison M. Macfarlane, Professor of Public Policy and International Affairs, George Washington University. Lecture: The Fukushima Nuclear Accident: Is Nuclear Energy still a Viable Choice for a Carbon-Constrained World?
- University Lecturer: Professor Sherman Jackson, University of Southern California. Lecture: Islam and the American Common Good
- Messenger Lecturer: Michael Moss, Author and Investigative Journalist. Lectures: Lecture 1: A journey into the underbelly of the processed food industry; Lecture 2: You are your own journalist: the evolving ethics of storytelling, Lecture 3: Panel Discussion: Brocolli, The Alpha Vegetable. Hard-core messaging for healthier eating
Fall 2014
- Messenger Lecturer: David Roman, Department of English and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. November Lecture: Reviving AIDS: On the 2011 Revival of the Normal Heart on Broadway
- University Lecturer: Mimi White, Northwestern University. Lecture: Dramas of Domestic Space on HGTV
2013-14
Fall 2013
- Messenger Lecturer: Patrick Dougherty, Sculptor. Lectures: Lecture 1: Engaging with Plants and Art; Lecture 2: The Art of Horticulture; Lecture 3: Public Space, Public Art; Lecture 4: Hands-On Workshop at Ithaca Children’s Garden
- Messenger Lecturer: Professor Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the University of the Free State. Lectures: Lecture 1: A South African Model for Practicing Community Engagement; Lecture 2: The Role of Higher Education in the Development of South Africa; Lecture 3: Meeting the Spirit and Letter of Diversity on a South African Campus
2012-13
Spring 2013
- Messenger Lecturer: Leonard Susskind, Director of the Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics, Stanford University. Lectures: Lecture 1: The Birth of the Universe and the Origin of Laws of Physics; Lecture 2: Black Holes, the Conservation of Information, and the Holographic Principle; Lecture 3: Entanglement: The Hooks that Hold Space Together
- University Lecturer: Carolyn Porco, Team Leader for the Imaging Investigation on the Cassini Saturn Orbiter. Lecture: A Decade at Saturn
- University Lecturer: Jose Saldivar, Stanford University. Lecture: Junot Díaz’s Search for Decolonial Aesthetics and Love
- University Lecturer: Elaine Romero, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Lecture: Mother of Exiles: From Concept to Production
- University Lecturer: Ron Suny, University of Michigan. Lecture: Explaining Genocide: The Fate of the Armenians
- University Lecturer: Stephen Pacala, Princeton University. Lecture: The Fate of the Land Carbon Sink
- University Lecturer: Jin Li, Brown University. Lecture: Western and East Asia Cultural Learning Models in the 21st Century
- University Lecturer: Ann Cvetkovich, University of Texas at Austin. Lecture: The Art of the Queer Counterarchive
Fall 2012
- Messenger Lecturer: Dr. Peter Nathanielsz, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Center for Pregnancy & Newborn Research. Lectures: Lecture 1: Health in the post-genomic era – the significance to our lifetime health of developmental programming and gene-environment interactions during development; Lecture 2: Biological milestones: The story of how fetal and neonatal development proceeds and how we become who we are; Lecture 3: Genes development and health: The new lesson for lifetime health – We are our Epigenome not our Genome
- Messenger Lecturer: A.E. Stallings, Poet, Translator, Member, American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Lectures: Lecture 1: Writing Poetry;Translating Poetry & Reading Poetry; Lecture 2: *A. E. Stallings Reading Poetry Video; Lecture 3: **A.E. Stallings Writing Poetry Video
- Messenger Lecturer: Professor Neil Price, Department of Archaeology, University of Aberdeen. Lectures: Lecture 1: The Children of Ash: Cosmology and the Viking Universe; Lecture 2: Life and Afterlife: Dealing with the Dead in the Viking Age; Lecture 3: The Shape of the Soul: The Viking Mind and the Individual
- University Lecturer: Professor W. Ian Lipkin, M.D., John Snow Professor of Epidemiology Director, Center for Infection & Immunity, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Lecture: Microbe Hunting
2011-12
Spring 2012
- Messenger Lecturer: Professor David Savran, Distinguished Professor and Vera Mowry Roberts Chair in American Theatre, CUNY Graduate Center. Lectures: Lecture 1: Branding as Cultural Performance; Lecture 2: Branding American Theatre in Postwar Europe; Lecture 3: The Queer Brand of Broadway: The American Musical from Porter to The Book of Mormon
- University Lecturer: Professor Neco Celik, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Center for Pregnancy & Newborn Research. Lecture: Film Screening of Urban Guerillas
- University Lecturer: Professor Lori Ginzberg, Professor of History and Women’s Studies, Pennsylvania State University. Lecture: Rights, Racism, & “A Very Radical Proposition”: Grappling with the Complex Legacies of Elizabeth Cady Stanton
- University Lecturer: Professor Brent Hayes Edwards, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University. Lecture: Ici Ou Ailleurs/Here or Anyplace Else: Dancing in Translation
- University Lecturer: Professor Ewine van Dishoeck, Professor of Molecular Astrophysics at the University of Leiden, Netherlands. Lecture: Building Planets and the Ingredients for Life Between the Stars
- University Lecturer: Professor Paul J. Steinhardt, Albert Einstein Professor of Science at Princeton University. Lecture: Once Upon a Time in Kamchatka: The Extraordinary Search for Natural Quasicrystals
- Messenger Lecturer: Professor Silvio Ferrari, University of Milan. Lectures: Lecture 1: Religion in the Western Legal Tradition: An Historical Perspective; Lecture 2: Law and Religions: Patterns; Lecture 3: Law and Religions: Problems
- Messenger Lecturer: Professor Tariq Ramadan, Oxford University. Lectures: Lecture 1: What would Muhammad do?; Lecture 2: Muslims in the West; Lecture 3: “Arab Revolutions: What Next”
- University Lecturer: Professor Jas’ Elsner,
Humfry Payne Senior Research Fellow in Classical Art at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Lecture: Rhetorics of Iconoclasm from Antiquity to Byzantium - University Lecturer: Professor Raymond Pierrehumbert, Louis Block Professor in Geophysical Sciences and the College, University of Chicago. Lecture: The Runaway Greenhouse: Could it Happen Here
- University Lecturer: Professor Sheldon Pollock, William B. Ransford Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Columbia University. Lecture: Philology in Three Dimensions
- Messenger Lecturer: Professor Amihai Mazar, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Lectures: Lecture 1: Archaeology and Biblical History: The Current State of Scholarship; Lecture 2: The Levant in the Tenth Century: Archaeology and the Alleged Time of David and Solomon; Lecture 3: A Land of Milk and Honey: Archaeological Research on the Unique Apiary at Tel Rehov, Israel
- University Lecturer: Professor Steven Cowley, Director of the Culham Laboratory and the Chief Executive Officer of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). Lecture: Fusion energy in the 21st century…and beyond!
Fall 2011
- University Lecturer: Professor Gene Robinson, Swanlund Chair, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Lecture: Understanding the Relationship Between Genes and Behavior: Lessons form the Honey Bee
- University Lecturer: Ambassador Edward J. Perkins, Former Ambassador to South Africa. Lecture: Reflections on a Career in Diplomacy
- University Lecturer: Catharine A. Mackinnon, Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. Lecture: Women’s Status, Men’s States
- University Lecturer: Theda Skocpol
Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University. Lecture: Obama’s New Deal, Tea Party Reaction, and America’s Political Future - University Lecturer: Carol Graham
Sr. Fellow and Charles Robinson Chair, The Brookings Institution. Lecture: Happiness around the World: The Paradox of Happy Peasant and Miserable Millionaires
2010-11
Spring 2011
- University Lecturer: Professor Nancy Armstrong, Gilbert, Louis, and Lehrman Professor of English, Duke University. Lecture: What is Contemporary About Contemporary Fiction?
- University Lecturer: Alan Lightman
Writer and Adjunct Professor, MIT. Lecture: Mr. g, a novel about the creation - University Lecturer: Elizabeth Freeman
Professor of English at the University of California, Davis. Lecture: Chronic Thinking (In conjunction with: Strategic Ruptures: Feminist Reflections on Crisis Management Series - University Lecturer: Rabbi Greg Epstein, Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University. Lecture: Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe
- University Lecturer: Professor Sally Kohlstedt, History of Science and Technology, University of Minnesota. Lecture: Through Books to Nature: Objects and Education in the Progressive Era
- University Lecturer: Dr. Regina Sullivan, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of New York University. Lecture: Neurobiology of Infant Attachment: Lessons from an Animal Model
- University Lecturer: Professor Susan R. Barry, Professor of Biology and Neuroscience, Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Lecture: FIXING MY GAZE: A scientist’s journey into seeing in three dimensions
- University Lecturer: Professor Dana Polan, Professor of Cinema Studies, New York University. Lecture: Television that Tastes Good: Julia Child, television cooking, and the search for status in America
- Messenger Lecturer: Lord John Krebs
Professor Principal of Jesus College at Oxford. Lecture: Science and Public Policy Lecture Series: Risk, Uncertainty and Regulation; Is Food Safe?; Facing up to Climate Change - University Lecturer: Nilufer Gole
Professor of Sociology, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France. Lecture: Islamic Visibility in European Publics: Secularism, Culture, and the Sacred - University Lecturer: Jay T. Groves
Chemical Biologist, University of California, Berkeley. Lecture: At the Interface of Physics: Spatial Organization in Chemical Biology
Fall 2010
- University Lecturer: Gananath Obeyesekere, Emeritus Professor, Anthropology, Princeton University. Lecture: Madame Blavatsky’s Visionary Travels and the Work of the Dream-Ego
- Messenger Lecturer: Nima Arkani-Hamed
Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ. Lectures: The Future of Fundamental Physics; *N. Arkani-Hamed: Setting the stage: Space-time and Quantum Mechanics Video - Messenger Lecturer: Nancy Fraser,
Professor of Philosophy and Politics, The New School of Social Research. Lectures: Lecture 1: The Fictitious Commodity: Fount of Capitalist Crisis in the 21st Century; Lecture 2: The Market in Nature: Seeds and Offshoots of Capitalist Crisis; Lecture 3: The Wages of Care Body and Soul of Capitalist Crisis”
2009-10
Spring 2010
- Messenger Lecturer: Gregor Schoeler,
Emeritus Professor, Islamic Studies, University of Basel. Lectures: Lecture 1: Miracles in Islam; Lecture 2: The Arabic Divine Comedy – The 11th Century Epistle of Forgiveness of al-Ma’arri; Lecture 3: Memory and Literacy – The oral and the written word in early Islam (8th Century) - University Lecturer: William Julius Wilson, Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor at Harvard University. Lecture: More Than Just Race, Being Black and Poor in the Inner City
- University Lecturer: A. James Hudspeth
Professor at the Rockefeller University in New York and the Head of the Laboratory of Sensory Neuroscience. Lecture: How Hearing Happens - University Lecturer: Martin Kemp,
Emeritus Professor, History of Art at Oxford University. Lecture: Structural Intuitions in Art, Science and Technology - University Lecturer: Phillip Lopate,
John Cranford Adams Chair & Professor of English, Hofstra University, New York. Lecture: The Art of Ambivalence: Self-Doubt and Changing One’s Mind and Books, Movies and Cities - University Lecturer: Robert J. Richards,
Fishbein Professor of the History of Science, Departments of History, Philosophy, Psychology, University of Chicago. Lecture: Darwin and Haeckel - University Lecturer: Marga Gomez
Award Winning Playwright, Actor and Humorist. Lecture: Long Island Iced Latina - University Lecturer: Susan Michaelis
Professor of Cell Biology, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Lecture: Cell Biology in the Translational Era: From Mating in Yeast to Aging in Humans
Fall 2009
- University Lecturer: E. Patrick Johnson,
Professor, Chair, and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Performance Studies and Professor in African American Studies at Northwestern University. Lecture: Pouring Tea: Black Gay Men of the South Tell Their Stories - University Lecturer: Elinor Ostrom,
Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science at Indiana University. Lecture: Collective Action and the Commons: What Have We Learned? - Messenger Lecturer: Nancy Fraser,
Professor of Philosophy and Politics, The New School of Social Research. Lecture: Theorizing the Great Transformation of the 21st Century - Messenger Lecturer: George Bass,
Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Texas A&M University. Lectures: Lecture 1: The Birth of Nautical Archaeology; Lecture 2: Early Mediterranean Seafaring; Lecture 3: A Midieval Puzzle: The Glass Wreck at Serce Limani
2008-09
Spring 2009
- University Lecturer: Margaret Wertheim
Science Writer and Exhibition Curator. Lecture: Reefer Mathness: Confronting Coral Reef Destruction and Global Warming through Mathematics, Collective Art Practice and Crochet - University Lecturer: John A. Pickett
Professor Head of Department of Biological Chemistry at Rothamsted Research. Lecture: Developing plant-derived stress signals for new crop protection strategies - University Lecturer: Nidhal Guessoum,
Professor of Physics & American University of Sharjah. Lecture: Science and the Arab Society: A Critical Survey and Assessment and The Anthropic Principle Today: Scientific, Philosophical, and Religious Perspectives - University Lecturer: Michael Geyer,
Samuel N. Harper Professor of German and European History, University of Chicago. Lecture: Millennial Militarism: Sovereignty Panics in the Contemporary United States - University Lecturer: Ira Mellman,
Vice President of Research Oncology & Genentech, Inc.. Lecture: From the Halls of Academia to the Shores of Industry: Basic Cell Biology for Human Benefit
Fall 2008
- Messenger Lecturer: Paul Griffiths,
Author and Music Critic, Performer and Librettis. Lecture: Restoring the Lost, Retrieving the Unwritten and Relinquishing the Unwritable - University Lecturer: Scott de la Hunta ’84
Research Fellow, ARTI Group, Amsterdam School of the Arts. Lecture: The Choreographic Resource: Technologies for Interpreting Dance - Messenger Lecturer: Sheilia Jasanoff,
Professor of Science & Technology Studies, Harvard University. Lecture: After Enlightenment: Rethinking Science’s Place in Democracy - University Lecturer: Garry Wills,
Professor, Northwestern University, Pulitzer Prize Winning Author. Lecture: Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858), One Hundred Fifty Years Later (2008) - University Lecturer: Marita Sturken
Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University. Lecture: Consuming Security: Defensive Design in the Comfort Cultureof Everyday Life
2007-08
Spring 2008
- University Lecturer: Anselm Haverkamp,
Professor of English and Director of the Poetics & Theory Program, New York University. Lecture: To Conceive of, in Pictures: Episodes from the History of Knowledge - University Lecturer: Robert Duke
Professor in Music & Human Learning, University of Texas, Austin. Lecture: Why Don’t Students Learn What We Think We Teach” - Messenger Lecturer: Nancy Fraser,
Professor of Philosophy and Politics, The New School of Social Research. Lecture: Disputing the Subject of Justice: National Citizenry, Global Humanity, or Transnational Community of Risk?
Fall 2007
- Messenger Lecturer: Michel Balinski, Professor Emeritus, Ecole Polytechnique, Paris. Lectures: Lecture 1: How to apportion fairly: Aristotle, the Talmud, the U.S. Congress and kidney transplants; Lecture 2: How to elect and to rank: Overcoming the paradoxes of social choice, electing a President of France and ranking wines; Lecture 3: How to eliminate gerrymandering: A new approach to representation, its realization in Zurich and its application to the U.S. Congress
- University Lecturer: Mandyam Srinivasan, Professor of Visual Neuroscience, Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland. Lecture: Small Brains, Smart Minds: Vision, Navigation, and ‘Cognition’ in Honeybees and Applications to Robotics
- University Lecturer: Speciosa Wandira former Ugandan Vice President. Lecture: Achieving Freedom from Hunger, Poverty, and Poor Health in Sub-Saharan Africa: Priorities for Research and Public Policy
2000-07
Spring 2007
Messenger Lecturer: Steven Weinberg, Nobel Laureate, Holder of the Josey Chair in Science and Professor of Physics & Astronomy, University of Texas at Austin. Lectures: The Invention of Science: Poetry and Technology; The Invention of Science: Mathematics and Philosophy; A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology
Spring 2005
Messenger Lecturer: Sir Martin Rees,
Astronomer Royal, University of Cambridge, UK. Lecture: Science and Survival in the 21st Century
Spring 2003
Messenger Lecturer: Francis Fukuyama,
Johns Hopkins University. University Lecture: The State After September 11
Spring 2001
Messenger Lecturer: Norman Myers
Consultant in Environment & Development. University Lecture: Environmental and Conservation Issues for the New Millenium
Fall 2001
Messenger Lecturer: Janet Halley,
Harvard Law School. University Lecture: Sexuality Harassment/Same Sex Marriage
Fall 2000
University Lecturer: David J.P. Barker, University of Southampton. University Lecture: Early Life Experiences and Adult Disease
1990-99
Spring1999
Gerald R. Fink, Director, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. University Lecture: We’re Off to See the Genome
Fall 1998
Judith Butler, Chancellor’s Professor, University of California at Berkeley. Lecture: Psychoanalysis, Politics, and Kinship
Fall 1997
Hon. Rex Nettleford, Deputy Vice Chancellor & Prof. of Continuing Studies, Univ. of W. Indies, Mona, Jamaica. University Lecture: Cultural Identity and Development: A Caribbean Perspective
Spring 1996
Clifton R. Wharton, Former Deputy Secretary of State. University Lecture: Presidential Politics and Foreign Policy: Diminishing America’s Global Stature
Fall 1996
Byron S.J. Weng, Prof. of Government & Public Administration, Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong. University Lecture: China’s One Country, Two Systems’ Policy and Its Implications for Sino-American Relations
Spring 1995
Ross Chambers, Prof. of French and Comparative Literature, University of Michigan. University Lecture: Aspects of Literature
Fall 1995
Helen Vendler, Professor of English, Harvard University. University Lecture: Shakespeare’s Sonnets
Spring 1994
Martha Nussbaum, University Professor & Professor of Philosophy and Classics, Brown University. University Lecture: Upheavals of Thought: A Theory of the Emotions
Fall 1994
Leo Bersani, Class of 1950 Professor of French, University of California at Berkeley. University Lecture: Homos
Spring 1993
Bruno Latour, Professor at the Ecole National Superieure des Mines, Paris. University Lecture: From Baboons to Nuclear Plants: A Common Geneaology for Technology and Society
Fall 1993
Ronald Takaki, Professor of Ethnic Studies, University of California at Berkeley. University Lecture: A Past Re-Visioned: The Making of Multicultural America
Spring 1992
Maynard Solomon, Professor of Music, Julliard. UniversityLecture: Mozart: A Family Portrait
Fall 1992
Peter Brooks, Professor of Humanities, Yale University. University Lecture: The Place of the Body in Modern Narrative
Spring 1991
John & Jean Comaroff, Professors of Anthropology, University of Chicago. UniversityLecture: Christianity, Colonialism, and Consciousness in South Africa
Fall 1991
Terrence Sejnowski, Professor of Biology & Physics, UCSD and the Salk Institute. University Lecture: The Computational Brain
Spring 1990
Myles Burnyeat, Senior Research Fellow, All Souls College, UK. University Lecture: Freedom, Anger, and Tranquility: An Archeaology of Feeling
Fall 1990
Sir Roger Penrose, Professor of Mathematics, Oxford University. University Lecture: Three Worlds and Three Mysteries
1980-89
Spring 1989
Peter H. Nye, Professor Emeritus, Plant Science, Oxford University. University Lecture: Towards the Quantitative Control of Crop Production and Quality
Fall 1989
Susan Moller Okin, Professor of Politics, Brandeis University. University Lecture: The Public/Domestic Dichotomy
Spring 1988
Houston Baker, Professor of English & Human Relations, University of Pennsylvania. University Lecture: Workings of the Spirit: The Poetics of Afro-American Women’s Writing
Fall 1988
Bert Vallee, Professor of Biochemical and Biophysical Sciences & Medicine, Harvard University. University Lecture: How Zinc Affects Biology and Medicine and the Fundamentals of Our Lives
Fall 1987
Baron Carl Friedrich von Weizsacker,
Emeritus Professor of Physics & Philosophy, Universities of Munich & Hamburg. University Lecture: Philosophical and Political Consequences of Modern Science
Spring 1987
Charles Tilly, Professor of Sociology & History, New School for Social Research. Lecture: War, States, and Collection Action
Spring 1986
Edward Said, Professor of English & Comparative Literature, Columbia University. Lecture: Culture and Imperialism
Fall 1986
Irving Janis, Professor of Psychology, Yale University. Lecture: Crisis Decision-Making in the Nuclear Age
Spring 1985
John E. Casida, Professor of Entomology, University of California at Berkeley. Lecture: Retrospective and Prospect Views on Chemicals, Man, and the Environment
Fall 1985
Ernst Mayr, Professor Emeritus, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University. Lecture: Evolutionary Biology and Philosophy
Fall 1984
- Jurgen Habermas, Director, Max Planck Institute, Munich. Lecture: Discourse on Modernity
- Herbert York, Professor of Physics, University of California, San Diego. Lecture: The Nuclear Arms Race
Spring 1983
- Maarten Brands, Professor of Modern History, University of Amsterdam. Lecture: Re-Inventing Europe
- Paul de Man, Professor of French & Comparative Literature, Yale University. Lecture: Rhetoric Aesthetics
Fall 1983
Quentin Skinner, Professor of Political Science, University of Cambridge, UK. Lecture: The Idea of Liberty: Classical and Contemporary Perspectives
Spring 1982
John T. Noonan, Jr., Professor of Law, University of California at Berkeley. Lecture: Bribery
Fall 1981
Patrick Suppes, Professor of Philosophy, Stanford University. Lecture: Rationality
Spring 1980
Robert J. Lifton, Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University. Lecture: From Healer to killer: The Doctors of Auschwitz
Fall 1980
- Donald Kennedy, President Stanford University. Lecture: Health, Science and Regulation
- Rosemary Cramp, Professor of Art & Archaeology, Durham University, UK. Lecture: The Viking Achievement
1970-79
Spring 1979
Marvin Minsky, Professor of Science, Computer Science Dept., MIT. Lecture: The Construction of the Mind
Fall 1979
Marvin Minsky, Professor of Science, Computer Science Dept., MIT. Lecture: The Construction of the Mind
Spring 1978
Jean Seznec, Professor of French Literature, University of Oxford. Lecture: Revival and Metamorphoses of the Gods in Nineteenth Century Art and Literature
Fall 1978
Arthur Kantrowitz, Chairman, AVCO-Everett Research Laboratory, Inc.. Lecture: A Technologist Looks at Anti-Technology
Spring 1977
Rene Girard, Professor of French & the Humanities, Johns Hopkins University. Lecture: Sacrifice, Symbolic Thought and Judeo-Christian Culture
Fall 1977
David Grene, Professor of Social Thought, University of Chicago. Lecture: Shakespeare: Politics, History, and Poetry
Spring 1976
Edward O. Wilson, Professor of Zoology, Harvard University. Lecture: Sociobiology
Fall 1976
Noam Chomsky, Professor of Linguistics & Philosophy, MIT. Lecture: Concepts of Language
Spring 1975
Charles Rosen, Pianist & Writer. Lecture: Music and the Perspectives of Historical Criticism
Fall 1975
Walle J.H. Nauta, Profesor of Psychology, MIT. Lecture: Mammalian Behavior and the Anatomy of the Brain
Spring 1974
- Zhores Medvedev, Soviet Biologist & Critic. Lecture: Intellectual Dissent in the Soviet Union
- Harry Bober, Professor of the Humanities, New York University. Lecture: Celtic Illuminated Manuscripts: Enigmas and Mysteries
Spring 1973
Elting Morison, Killian Professor of the Class of 1926, MIT. Lecture: Celtic Iluminated Manuscripts: Engimas and Mysteries
Spring 1972
C.T. deWit, Professor of Theoretical Production Ecology, Agricultural University, the Netherlands. Lecture: Theoretical Production Ecology: An Attempt Toward Integration
Fall 1972
Garrett Hardin, Professor of Biology, University of California at Santa Barbara. Lecture: The Value and Dignity of Life
Spring 1971
Jerzy Neyman, Professor of Statistics, University of California at Berkeley. Lecture: A Statistician’s Experience in Three Domains of Science: Astronomy, Cancer, and Weather Modification
Fall 1971
David Daube, Professor of Law, University of California at Berkeley. Lecture: Civil Disobedience in Antiquity
Fall 1970
Oswei Temkin, Professor of the History of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University. Lecture: Galenism: Rise and Decline of a Medical Philosophy
1960-69
Fall 1969
- Yigael Yadin, Professor of Archaeology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Lecture: From the Hasmoneans to Bar-Kochba: Archaelogical Findings and Finds in the Wilderness of Judea
- Samuel H. Beer, Professor of Government, Harvard University. Lecture: The Politics of American Federalism
Spring 1968
Henry Eyring, Professor of Chemistry & Metallurgy, University of Utah. Lecture: The Scientific Models We Live By
Fall 1968
Michel Jouvet, M.D., Faculty of Medicine, University of Lyons, France. Lecture: Sleep and Dreams
Spring 1967
Madame Jacqueline de Romilly, Professor of Greek, The Sorbonne. Lecture: Aspects of Time in Greek Tragedy
Fall 1967
Dame Helen Louise Gardner, Professor of English Literature, University of Oxford, UK. Lecture: Shakespeare’s Tragic Art
Fall 1965
A. Frey-Wyssling, Department of General Botany & Electron Microscopy, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Lecture: Ultra-Structural Cell Organization
Spring 1964
C. Vann Woodward, Professor of History, Yale University. Lecture: The First Reconstruction in Light of the Second
Fall 1964
Richard Feynman, Professor of Theoretical Physics, California Institute of Technology. Lecture: The Character of Physical Law
Spring 1963
H.L.A. Hart, Professor of Jurisprudence, University of Oxford, UK. Lecture: Mind and Deed in the Law
Fall 1963
Kingsley Davis, Professor of Sociology, University of California at Berkeley. Lecture: New Perspectives on Population: Change and Response in Modern Demographic History
Fall 1962
Alexander Hollaender, Director, Biology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Lecture: Some Basic Problems in Radiation Biology
Spring 1961
William Haller, Professor of English, Barnard College, Columbia University. Lecture: The Elect Nation on Puritanism Reconsidered
Fall 1961
Harry Harlow, Professor of Psychology, University of Wisconsin. Lecture: The Nature of Love and Affection in Primates
Spring 1960
Meyer Shapiro, Professor of Fine Arts, Columbia University. Lecture: Abstract Painting