W&L Livestreaming Events
We use LiveStream as our primary streaming video service provider. LiveStream feeds are viewable across all desktop platforms and iOS/android devices. Should you require closed captions, you can find many live events on our YouTube account as well.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Alumni College • Perspectives in the Middle East with Seth Cantey
Monday, July 11, 2022 • 9 a.m. EDT
History in the Middle East runs deep, and the variety of cultures, ethnicities and languages is vast. Islam is the dominant religion, but it means different things to different people in different places. The roles of women are constantly changing, and women are now competing with men across a range of societal spheres. Perspectives on the Middle East will offer an introduction to all of these themes and to the broader heritage of the region. Participants will gain a greater understanding of the cultural and political complexities of the region as well as some encouraging developments.
Alumni College • Emily Dickinson & Robert Frost with Jim Warren
Thursday, July 21, 2022 • 9 a.m. EDT
The poetry of Emily Dickinson (1830-1885) and Robert Frost (1874-1963) is familiar to us not merely because it is distinctively American but also because it is local. While New England was their common ground, their most frequent subjects were found in their neighborhoods.
As different as they are in style, vision and voice, Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost are good neighbors to one another, and also to the natural world they explore in striking ways. Helping us appreciate their remarkable poetry will be Jim Warren, Mason Professor of English emeritus.
Alumni College • The Harlem Renaissance with Lena Hill
Monday, July 25, 2022 • 9 a.m. EDT
America is a nation of many voices. At key moments in our history, when social forces, popular culture and political life have coalesced, these separate voices have come together to form new national expression, new artistic achievement. The Founding Era is one example; so too is the American Renaissance of the 1850s. The period of the Harlem Renaissance in the early 20th century is another. Within a few decades, American art and culture flourished in ways that are still influencing our understanding of ourselves as a nation.
PAST EVENTS
2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021
Thursday, May 26, 2022: Undergraduate Commencement 2022
The 2021-22 academic year is the 273rd year in the life of Washington and Lee University and culminates with the Commencement ceremonies for the undergraduate College and Williams School.
View the video: Vimeo (with free download) | Archived Livestream event
Friday, May 13, 2022: Law Commencement 2022
The 167th commencement ceremony for the Washington and Lee University School of Law was scheduled for Friday, May 13, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. on the Front Lawn of the main campus.
View the video: Vimeo (with free download) | Archived Livestream event
Friday, April 8, 2022: Tom Wolfe Weekend Seminar • Rebecca Makkai, author of “The Great Believers”
This year marks the 17th annual Tom Wolfe Weekend Seminar, W&L’s ultimate book club. Sponsored by the W&L Class of 1951 in honor of its late classmate Tom Wolfe, the program honors a distinguished writer and observer of the American scene. Last year’s program featured Delia Owens’ bestselling debut novel, “Where the Crawdads Sing,” which tells the story of Kya Clark, a young girl abandoned by her parents, who must fend for herself in extremely impoverished circumstances. This year, we turn to one of our own, Rebecca Makkai, W&L class of 1999, whose critically acclaimed novel, “The Great Believers,” was a National Book Award Finalist and was selected as one of the 10 Best Books of 2018 by The New York Times Book Review.
View the video: Vimeo
Thursday, March 24: Mudd Center • Daily Ethics with Mark Coddington, “The Everyday Ethics of Scrolling Through Social Media: How to Avoid Getting Buried in an Online Information Avalanche”
Mark Coddington’s research focuses on media sociology and networked journalism. As a professor and former journalist, he is working to understand our new journalistic ecosystem – not only the technical skills of engaging in it, but also the deeper concepts of what type of society it’s helping to create.
“I will discuss strategies and habits for navigating the flood of misleading and distracting information on social media in order to find the quality news we need to be thoughtful, informed, and engaged citizens. I’ll explore how our everyday digital media consumption embodies a liberal-arts philosophy and our values as members of the W&L community.”
View the video: Vimeo (coming soon) | Archived Livestream Event
Monday, March 14, 2022: Mudd Center • Daily Ethics with Katharine Hayhoe, “Environmental Ethics Right Now: Individual, Collective, Local, and Global Actions That Matter”
Katharine Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist who studies climate change and why it matters to us here and now. Her research focuses on developing and applying high-resolution climate projections to understand what climate change means for people and the natural environment. She is also known for working to bridge the gap between science and religion, a practice informed by her Christian faith. To this end, she discusses climate change through the lens of scripture and focuses on the benefits of collective action to mitigate the effects of climate change. In 2009, she co-authored a book called “A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions,” which outlines the ways in which climate science reflects conservative Christian beliefs. Hayhoe hosts the PBS digital series, “Global Weirding: Climate, Politics and Religion.”
View the video: Vimeo
Wednesday, March 9, 2022: Mudd Center • Daily Ethics with Neeru Paharia, “The Ethics of Consumer Choice”
“Consumption is one of the drivers behind significant world problems. The fashion industry alone contributes 10% of global carbon emissions. In this talk, we will consider the psychology of consumer behavior, and explore psychological strategies to enable more sustainable consumption.”
A primary focus of Neeru Paharia’s research is political consumption, or the conditions under which consumers are likely to wield their buying power to express their political views and enact social change. A secondary focus examines how people signal their social status with alternative status signals, such as using well-resourced (or “top dog”) brands or communicating how busy they are. She utilizes experimental methods to collect real-world data with an aim to impact practice and have a positive influence on business and society.
View the video: Vimeo (coming soon) | Archived Livestream Event
Friday, March 4, 2022: Institute for Honor Symposium Keynote with Elizabeth Varon
Elizabeth R. Varon is Langbourne M. Williams Professor of American History at the University of Virginia and a member of the executive council of UVA’s John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History. Varon grew up in northern Virginia. She received her PhD from Yale, and has held teaching positions at Wellesley College and Temple University. A specialist in the Civil War era and 19th-century South, Varon is the author of We Mean to be Counted: White Women and Politics in Antebellum Virginia (1998); Southern Lady, Yankee Spy: The True Story of Elizabeth Van Lew, A Union Agent in the Heart of the Confederacy (2003), Disunion!: The Coming of the American Civil War, 1789-1859 (2008) and Appomattox: Victory, Defeat and Freedom at the End of the Civil War (2013). Southern Lady, Yankee Spy won three book awards and was named one of the “Five Best” books on the “Civil War away from the battlefield” in the Wall Street Journal. Appomattox won the 2014 Library of Virginia Literary Award for Nonfiction, the 2014 Dan and Marilyn Laney Prize for Civil War History (Austin Civil War Roundtable), and the 2014 Eugene Feit Award in Civil War Studies of the New York Military Affairs Symposium, and was named one of Civil War Monitor’s “Best Books of 2014” and one of National Public Radio’s “Six Civil War Books to Read Now.” Varon’s public presentations include book talks at the Lincoln Bicentennial in Springfield; and at Gettysburg’s Civil War Institute; and on C-Span’s Book TV. Her most recent book, Armies of Deliverance: A New History of the Civil War, won the 2020 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize and was named one of the Wall Street Journal’s best books of 2019. She is currently working on a biography of James Longstreet, forthcoming with Simon & Schuster in 2023.
View the video: Vimeo (coming soon) | Archived Livestream Event
Thursday, February 10, 2022: Mudd Center • Daily Ethics with Jay Whitacre, “The Criticality of Technical Honesty in Growing Energy Technology Companies: How Even the Best Intentions Can Lead to Ruin”
“In this talk I will discuss the ethical challenges encountered by leaders in small and growing energy technology firms that must show progress to survive and so face temptations misleading investors and/or customers when progress is slow (which is common). I will offer personal experiences and reflections from the energy storage world and suggest ethical best-practices to avoid conflict or worse.”
View the video: Vimeo | Archived Livestream Event
2021
Thursday, November 11, 2021: Mudd Center • Daily Ethics with Chantal Bilodeau, “Living in the Questions of a Climate-Changed World.”
“Theatre can help us surface the questions that science doesn’t have time to ask. Gathering around stories is one of the most powerful tools we have to strengthen our values and create a more just and sustainable world.”
Chantal Bilodeau is a playwright and translator whose work focuses on the intersection of science, policy, art and climate change.
View the video: Vimeo (coming soon) | Archived Livestream Event
Thursday, October 28, 2021: Mudd Center • Daily Ethics with Andrew Chignell, “What to Do When You Don’t Make a Difference.”
“Those of us who relish certain products of the global industrial economy but also believe it is wrong to consume them are often so demoralized by the apparent inefficacy of our private, individual choices that we are unable to resist. My goal here is to explore the challenges that this sort of futility poses to our moral resolve and argue for an approach that is at once non-consequentialist but still sensitive to the role that consequences play in our moral psychology. Along the way, I examine a number of different accounts of what it means to ‘make a difference’ before articulating my own.”
Andrew Chignell’s (Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor, University Center for Human Values, Religion, and Philosophy, Princeton University) work focuses on 17th- and 18th-century philosophy (especially Immanuel Kant), the moral psychology of hope and despair, food ethics, and philosophy of religion.
View the video: Vimeo (coming soon) | Archived Livestream Event
Monday, September 27, 2021: Mudd Center • Daily Ethics with Cheshire Calhoun, “Responsible Persons in Everyday Life”
Cheshire Calhoun, Professor of Philosophy, Arizona State University, works in the areas of normative ethics and moral psychology, addressing topics such as civility, common decency, integrity, hope, meaningful living, appreciation and taking on responsibilities.
View the video: Vimeo (coming soon) | Archived Livestream Event
Saturday, September 11, 2021: Class of 2020 Commencement Ceremony
The official commencement celebrations for the undergraduate and law classes of 2020.
View the video: Vimeo (with free download) | Archived Livestream Event
Thursday, September 9, 2021: Fall Convocation 2021
W&L began the 2021-22 academic year with an address by President Will Dudley.
View the video: Vimeo | Archived Livestream Event
Thursday, May 27, 2021: Undergraduate Commencement 2021
The 234th undergraduate commencement was held on Thursday, May 27, 2021, at 10:00 a.m. on Wilson Field.
View the video: Vimeo (with download) | Archived Livestream Event
Friday, May 7, 2021: Law Commencement 2021
The 166th commencement ceremony for the Washington and Lee University School of Law was held on Friday, May 7, at 10:00 a.m. on Wilson Field.
View the video: Vimeo (with download) – OR – Archived Livestream Event
Monday, March 15, 2021: Mudd Center/CIE • Global Ethics with F. Kwame Yeboah, “Africa’s Youth and Agrifood System: Pathways for Job Creation and Economic Transformation.”
Prof. Kwame Yeboah is an Assistant Professor of International Development and a member of the Food Security Group at Michigan State University. He joined the department in December 2014 under the Guiding Investments in Sustainable Agricultural Intensification in Africa grant.
View the video: Archived Livestream Event -OR- Archived Youtube Event (with closed captions)
Monday, February 15, 2021: Mudd Center/CIE • Global Ethics w/Valerie Hudson, “The First Political Order: How Sex Shapes Governance and National Security Worldwide.”
Dr. Valerie Hudson is University Distinguished Professor and the holder of the George H.W. Bush Chair in the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University.
An expert on international security and foreign policy analysis as well as gender and security, she received her PhD in political science at The Ohio State University. She also was a member of the faculty at Brigham Young University. At Texas A&M, she directs the Bush School’s Program on Women, Peace, and Security.
View the video: Archived Livestream Event -OR- Archived Youtube Event (with closed captions)
Tuesday, February 2, 2021: Mudd Center/CIE • Global Ethics w/ Erin Taylor & Ralph Caldroney, “Ethical Issues in the Context of Covid-19”
Professor Erin Taylor joined the Department of Philosophy at Washington and Lee as an Assistant Professor in 2016. Her work is in Normative Ethics, Political Philosophy, and Bioethics, focusing in particular on role obligations and associative duties. Her writings include publications in the American Philosophical Quarterly and the Australasian Journal of Philosophy.
Dr. Caldroney grew up in Newport News, Virginia, and attended Washington and Lee University, class of 1972. He received his M.D. from the Medical College of Virginia at Virginia Commonwealth University in 1976. He trained in Internal Medicine in Charleston, SC, at the Medical University of South Carolina and held a Fellowship in Critical Care Medicine at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL. Dr. Caldroney spent seven years on the teaching medical staff at University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington, KY, and then 25+ years in private practice in Lexington, KY. In addition to private practice, Dr. Caldroney spent eight years in the Army Reserves starting in 2001 with deployments to Landstuhl, Germany; Camp Bucca, Iraq and Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan. Besides his work for Rockbridge Area Hospice, Dr. Caldroney works part-time with Carilion Clinic in Buena Vista, Virginia. His specialty is Internal Medicine.
View the video: Archived Livestream Event -OR- Archived Youtube Event (with closed captions)
Thursday, January 28, 2021: Mudd Center/CIE • Global Ethics with Dr. Jonathan Wortham, MD ’04, “Ethical Problems in Public Health Practice”
Jonathan Wortham, MD ’04 leads the Outbreak Investigations Team in the Division of Tuberculosis Elimination at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While at CDC, Jonathan has investigated outbreaks of Legionnaire’s disease, tuberculosis, Ebola, Zika, and COVID-19. He graduated from Washington and Lee University with a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and subsequently completed medical school and a pediatric residency at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. After residency, he completed the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) fellowship, an applied public health training program, at CDC. He has authored more than 15 scientific manuscripts about various public health topics. In addition to his CDC work, he practices pediatrics in urgent care settings in Atlanta.
View the video: Archived Livestream Event -OR- Archived Youtube Event
Tuesday, January 19, 2021: Founders Day/Omicron Delta Kappa Convocation 2021
Founders Day is the formal convocation of Washington and Lee’s winter academic term, and a time at which Omicron Delta Kappa, the national leadership honor society founded at W&L in 1914, annually inducts new members. The 2021 edition was held virtually.
Our guest speaker was Michael J. Barsanti, the New Edwin Wolf 2nd Director at The Library Company of Philadelphia. The title of his talk is “Friendship, Franklin and the Future of Democracy.”
View the video: Vimeo | Archived Livestream Event | Archived Youtube Event (with closed captions)
2020
Thursday, October 29, 2020: Mudd Center/CIE • Global Ethics with Elizabeth Kolbert
Elizabeth Kolbert, staff writer for The New Yorker and 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, will deliver a lecture for the 2020-2021 ethics series, “Global Ethics in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities” in a webinar beginning at 5:00 pm on Oct 29. Her lecture is entitled, “Climate Change and Its Impact on the World Order”. There will be a 15-minute Q&A following the lecture.
View the video: Archived Livestream Event -OR- Archived Youtube Event (with closed captions)
Monday, October 19, 2020: Mudd Center/CIE • Global Ethics with Prof. Thomas H. Speedy Rice
Prof. Thomas H. Speedy Rice, Professor of Practice at the Transnational Law Institute in the W&L School of Law, will give a lecture on “Cultural Norms and the Export of the W&L Honor System” as part of the 2020-2021 ethics series, “Global Ethics in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities”.
View the video: Archived Livestream Event -OR- Archived Youtube Event (with closed captions)
Thursday, October 15, 2020: Mudd Center/CIE • Global Ethics with Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter
Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO of New America, Professor Emerita of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University, former Director of policy planning at the US Dept of State, former Director of Harvard University’s International Legal Studies Program, and prolific author, will deliver a lecture for the 2020-2021 ethics series, “Global Ethics in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities” in a webinar beginning at 5:00 pm on Oct 15. Dr. Slaughter’s lecture is entitled, “Renewing the Promise of America: Looking Back to Move Forward”. There will be a 15-minute Q&A following the lecture.
View the video: Archived Livestream Event -OR- Archived Youtube Event (with closed captions)
Wednesday, October 7, 2020: Guerrilla Girls: The Art of Behaving Badly
Guerrilla Girls is an anonymous group of feminist, female artists devoted to fighting sexism and racism within the art world. The group formed in New York City in 1985 with the mission of drawing attention to gender and racial inequality in museums, galleries, and cultural institutions. In order to preserve their anonymity and keep the focus on the issues, members wear gorilla masks in public and take the names of deceased female artists. Their posters, stickers, and street projects use facts and statistics infused with humor to call attention to corruption and gender and ethnic bias in the arts community. The group has brought their message promoting human rights for all people and genders all over the world.
View the video: Archived Livestream Event -OR- Archived Youtube Event (with closed captions)
Thursday, September 24, 2020: Mudd Center/CIE Keynote Lecture • The Honorable Reuben Brigety
The Honorable Reuben Brigety, Vice Chancellor of the University of the South: Sewanee, former dean of the Elliott School at George Washington University, as well as former ambassador to the African Union during the Obama administration, will deliver the keynote address for the 2020-2021 ethics series, “Global Ethics in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities” in a webinar beginning at 5:00 pm. Vice-Chancellor Brigety’s talk is entitled, “Black Lives Matter: An International Moment” and is open to members of the W&L community. There will be a 15-minute Q&A following the lecture. To register for the webinar, visit go.wlu.edu/mudd/brigety. The 2020-2021 ethics series is co-sponsored by the Mudd Center for Ethics and the Center for International Education.
View the video: Archived Livestream Event -OR- Archived Youtube Event (with closed captions)
Thursday, September 17, 2020: Constitution Day Speaker • Mary Anne Franks
Mary Anne Franks, professor of law and Dean’s Distinguished Scholar at the University of Miami School of Law, delivers this year’s Constitution Day address. The title of her talk is “The Cult of the Constitution.”
View the video: Youtube
Sunday, August 23, 2020: Fall Convocation 2020 with President Will Dudley
President Will Dudley delivers the Fall Convocation address.
View the video: Archived Event
Thursday, May 28, 2020: Undergraduate Conferral of Degrees
Washington and Lee University will hold a virtual conferral of degrees for the class of 2020. An in-person ceremony will be scheduled for a later date.
View the video: Archived Event -OR- Upgraded Vimeo version
Friday, May 8, 2020: Washington and Lee University School of Law Conferral of Degrees
Washington and Lee University School of Law will hold a virtual conferral of degrees for the class of 2020. An in-person ceremony will be scheduled for a later date.
View the video: Archived Event -OR- Upgraded Vimeo version
Tuesday, March 10, 2020: Fishback Visiting Writers Speaker • NYT Columnist Jamelle Bouie
New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie is our Fishback Visiting Writers Speaker. His speech is titled, “The Civil Rights Movement Today: A Second Redemption?”
View the video: Archived Event -OR- Upgraded Vimeo version
Friday, March 6, 2020: Institute for Honor 2020 Keynote with Author and Historian Michael Beschloss
Michael Beschloss is an award-winning historian of the presidency and the author of eight books, including the bestsellers “Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America, 1789–1989,” “The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman and the Destruction of Hitler’s Germany, 1941–1945”, a trilogy on the first year of Lyndon Johnson’s presidency and newly released secret tapes and “Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy.” His most recent book is “Presidents of War: The Epic Story, From 1807 to Modern Times.”
To view this video, please contact the Office of Lifelong Learning to request the URL and password.
Tuesday, January 21, 2020: Founders Day / Omicron Delta Kappa Convocation 2020 with Lynn Rainville
Lynn Rainville, Washington and Lee University’s director of institutional history, will be the featured speaker at W&L’s Founders Day/Omicron Delta Kappa Convocation on Jan. 21 at 5 p.m. in Lee Chapel. The title of her talk, which is free and open to the public is, “Untold Stories of Founders, Leaders and Other Visionaries at W&L.”
Founders Day is the formal convocation of Washington and Lee’s winter academic term, and a time at which Omicron Delta Kappa, the national leadership honor society founded at W&L in 1914, annually inducts new members.
View the video: Archived Event -OR- Upgraded Vimeo version
2019
Thursday, December 5, 2019: Candlelight Service, A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
An annual tradition at Washington and Lee University dating back more than 80 years, the Candlelight Service featuring the University Singers, weaves together the sacred narration of the Christmas story through music, prayers, lessons and hymns. The telling of the Incarnation in this manner binds countries and cultures dating back hundreds of years. From traditional favorites to modern masterpieces, let text and music intertwine for a peaceful evening unlike any other in Lexington.
View the video: Archived Event -OR- Upgraded Vimeo version
Thursday, November 14, 2019: Mudd Center for Ethics • The Ethics of Technology with Professor and Author Virginia Eubanks
Virginia Eubanks, Associate Professor of Women’s Studies at the University of Albany will give a lecture for the Mudd Center’s series, “The Ethics of Technology.” Prof. Eubanks joined the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies in 2004 after completing her Ph.D. in Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She came to her research on technology, poverty and women’s citizenship through a history of activism in community media and technology center movements. She is currently engaged in a four-year National Science Foundation funded research project exploring the citizenship effects of welfare administration technologies on clients and frontline caseworkers in New York State. The title of the talk will be “The Shakedown State: Digital Debt, Economic Inequality, and Automation in Public Services.”
View the video: Archived Event -OR- Upgraded Vimeo version (coming soon)
Tuesday, October 29, 2019: A Conversation with Margaret Sullivan, Washington Post Media Columnist
The Washington Post Media Columnist, Margaret Sullivan, engages in a conversation with Washington and Lee University Knight Chair in Media Ethics, Aly Colón, about the how the news media grapples with ethics in confrontational times.
View the video: Archived Event -OR- Upgraded Vimeo version
Monday, October 28, 2019: Mudd Center for Ethics • The Ethics of Technology with Professor of Information Science at Cornell Tech Helen Nissenbaum
Helen Nissenbaum is Professor of Information Science at Cornell Tech and the author or co-author of eight books. Before joining Cornell Tech in 2016, she served as Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication, and Computer Science, at New York University, where she was also Director of the Information Law Institute. Earlier she served as Associate Director of the Center for Human Values at Princeton University. In March 2019, she was named a Distinguished Fellow of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence.
Prof. Nissenbaum’s research takes an ethical perspective on policy, law, science, and engineering relating to information technology, computing, digital media, and data science. She is known for the concept of “contextual integrity” and for her work on privacy, privacy law, trust, and security in the online world. In 2014, she received the Barwise Prize of the American Philosophical Association for “significant and substantial contributions to areas relevant to philosophy and computing.”
View the video: Archived Event -OR- Upgraded Vimeo version
Thursday, October 24, 2019: Conversations in the Age of Trump with Peter Baker of The New York Times
Peter Baker, the chief White House correspondent for The New York Times, has covered four presidents for The Times and Washington Post: Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and William Clinton.
Baker co-wrote the first Washington Post story about the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal. He was the Post‘s lead writer on the impeachment and trial of Clinton. He and his journalist wife, Susan Glasser, spent four years as Moscow bureau chiefs for the Post. In 2018 he wrote “Impeachment: An American History” with three co-authors.
His other books are “Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House,” “The Breach: Inside the Impeachment and Trial of William Jefferson Clinton,” and “Kremlin Rising: Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the End of the Revolution,” with Glasser, now a columnist at The New Yorker and editor at Politico. Baker and Glasser are working on a book about former Secretary of State James A Baker III.
View the video: Archived Event -OR- Upgraded Vimeo version
Monday, October 21, 2019: Mudd Center for Ethics • The Ethics of Technology with Professor, Roboticist, and Roboethicist Ronald Arkin
Ronald C. Arkin is a roboticist and roboethicist whose research interests include human-robot interaction, robot ethics, behavior-based reactive control and action-oriented perception for mobile robots and unmanned aerial vehicles, hybrid deliberative/reactive software architectures, robot survivability, multi-agent robotic systems, bio-robotics, and learning in autonomous systems. He has over 170 technical publications in these areas. He is known for his book Behavior-based Robotics and for developing the motor schema technique in robot navigation. Ronald’s talk is titled, “Robots that Need to Mislead: Biologically-inspired Machine Deception.”
View the video: Archived Event -OR- Upgraded Vimeo version
Thursday, October 17, 2019: Julian Zelizer, “Political Polarization and the Road to the Trump Presidency”
Respected historian Julian E. Zelizer comes to W&L as a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar to deliver the lecture: “Political Polarization and the Road to the Trump Presidency.” Co-sponsored by the W&L History Department and W&L’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter. Funding was received from the University Lectures Fund.
About Julian E. Zelizer: Julian E. Zelizer is the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941 Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University and a CNN Political Analyst. He is the author and editor of over 18 books including “The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society.” Co-authored with Kevin Kruse, his book “Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974” was published this year, with his next book coming out later this year, “Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, The Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party.” He is currently writing a biography of Abraham Joshua Heschel for the Jewish Lives Series at Yale University Press. Zelizer also writes a popular weekly column for CNN and is a regular guest on the network news shows.
View the video: Archived Event -OR- Upgraded Vimeo version
Monday, October 14, 2019: Lee Chapel Fall Lecture 2019 with Lynn Rainville
This is our annual fall lecture featuring Dr. Lynn Rainville. Her title is: “At home with the presidents: An ethno-historic study of everyday life at the Lee House.”
View the video: Archived Event -OR- Upgraded Vimeo version
Monday, October 7, 2019: Ambassador John Campbell: “The Giants of Africa: What’s Next for South Africa and Nigeria?”
Ambassador John Campbell will discuss the vastly different trajectories of sub-Saharan Africa’s two largest economies, Nigeria and South Africa, drawing comparisons to elsewhere on the continent and around the world. Nigeria’s colonial history, followed by two generations of military rule, can help explain contemporary political dysfunction, while for South Africa, the shortcomings of the negotiated settlement that marked apartheid’s end reflect closely the crises the country is currently grappling with. The hand history dealt explains much; leadership, or how those hands were played, explains more.
View the video: Archived Event -OR- Upgraded Vimeo version
Thursday, September 26, 2019: Mudd Center “The Ethics of Technology” Keynote Address with Josephine Johnston
Josephine Johnston, Director of Research at The Hastings Center in Garrison, NY, will give the keynote lecture for the Mudd Center’s 2019-2020 series, “The Ethics of Technology.” Johnston’s talk is titled “The Good Parent in an Age of Gene Editing: How Novel Genetic Technologies Challenge Parental Responsibility.”
View the video: Archived Event -OR- Upgraded Vimeo version
Thursday, September 19, 2019: Covering Power and Money: A Conversation with Susanne Craig and Rachel Abrams of the New York Times
Susanne Craig is an investigative reporter at The New York Times. She has been covering Donald Trump and his finances since 2016 and was part of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning team that painstakingly documented how Trump received hundreds of millions of dollars from his father, some of it through fraudulent tax schemes. She has also covered Wall Street for The Times and has served as Albany bureau chief. Previously, Ms. Craig was a reporter at The Wall Street Journal and worked at The Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper. She graduated from the University of Calgary and lives in New York City.
Rachel Abrams is a business reporter for the New York Times. She was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for public service for reporting that exposed sexual harassment and misconduct. Ms. Abrams was also part of the team of reporters who covered General Motors’ crisis involving fatal ignition switches. Ms. Abrams is originally from Los Angeles and graduated in 2009 from New York University, where she majored in history. Before The Times, she covered the economics of the film industry for Variety.
View the video: Archived Event -OR- Upgraded Vimeo version
Tuesday, September 17, 2019: Constitution Day Discussion of the 1619 Project, the Spirit of ’76, and the U.S. Constitution
For W&L’s Constitution Day this September 17th (Tuesday), the Politics Department has scheduled a panel of W&L professors that will address an article by Nikole Hannah-Jones in NY Times Magazine, which is part of their “1619 Project.” The panel will run from 4:00-5:30 pm in Stackhouse Theater. Hers was the lead essay for the project, which raises important questions about how we understand our nation’s past, especially the role that slavery played in this country’s development, which of course shapes how we understand the U.S. Constitution. It also argues for the essential role that black Americans played in the social and political development of the United States.
View the video: Archived Event -OR- Upgraded Vimeo version
Friday, September 13, 2019: Mock Convention Panel • Trump or No Trump: The 2020 Presidential Election
Politics Professors Brian Alexander and Bob Strong discuss the state of politics and the upcoming 2020 election. Their presentations are followed by Mock Convention 2020 student leaders John Harashinski ’20, Parker Catlett ’20, Elizabeth Thompson, and Jimmy Fleck ’20 discussing their organization and their upcoming plans for the 2020 Mock Convention.
View the video: Archived Event -OR- Upgraded Vimeo version
Friday, September 13, 2019: The Honor System & Academic Integrity Panel Discussion
Will Bolton, Student Body Executive Committee President & The Owings Fellowship and Academic Integrity Catherine Latour ’20, Harrison Travis ’21 and Will Schirmer ’20
View the video: Archived Event -OR- Upgraded Vimeo version
Thursday, September 12, 2019: “A Civil War Murder(?) Mystery: The Death and Burial of Lt. John Rodgers Meigs” with Barton Myers
Inaugural Lecture, Dr. Barton Myers, Class of 1960 Professor of Ethics and History
View the video: Archived Event -OR- Upgraded Vimeo version
Wednesday, September 4, 2019: Fall Convocation 2019 with Bob Strong
Robert A. Strong, the William Lyne Wilson Professor of Political Economy will give the 2019 Fall Convocation address, “George Washington and Education.”
View the video: Archived Event -OR- Upgraded Vimeo version
Thursday, July 25, 2019: “The Faces of Evil: Contexts and Personae” with Mikki Brock
Mikki Brock, Associate Professor of British History, presents the first session from the Alumni College’s “Witches, Monsters, and Madmen: Our Fascination with Evil.” Of all the topics that have flummoxed and fascinated human societies, few have been more powerful or pervasive than evil. Evil has been conceptualized as a supernatural force, personified by Satan, and as a profoundly human characteristic that reveals the inner demons of our natures. From cases of demonic possession in the early modern era to the inhumane atrocities of the Third Reich, the Western world has been obsessed with the questions of the nature and cause of evil.
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Monday, July 22, 2019: “Perspectives on the Bush 41 Presidency: Character and Consequence” with Bob Strong
Bob Strong, the William Lyne Wilson Professor of Political Economy, presents the first session from the Alumni College’s “Bush 41: The Pivotal Presidency.” Bush was a serious challenger to Reagan for the presidency in 1980. After he lost the nomination, he accepted the second spot on the ticket and loyally served as Reagan’s vice president. When he ran again in 1988, Republicans worried that he was not really a Reagan conservative. It did not help that Newsweek called him a wimp. After winning hard-fought primaries and a controversial general election, Bush confronted large opposition majorities in Congress and deficits that deadlocked domestic legislation. His presidency also faced a dramatically changing world. Chinese students demanded political freedom in Tiananmen Square, Poland held free and fair elections, Hungary opened its international borders, Czechoslovakia made a poet and former political prisoner their new president, the Berlin Wall came down, and the Soviet Union collapsed. In 1989, Bush approved the largest American military operation since Vietnam to overthrow the government of Manuel Noriega. A year later he sent a vastly larger military force into the Persian Gulf to oppose Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.
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Monday, July 15, 2019: “Sam Clemens and Mark Twain: Life and Times of a Mysterious Twin” with Jim Warren
Jim Warren, Professor of English Emeritus, presents the first session from the Alumni College’s “The Life and Times of Mark Twain.” If you search for the works of Mark Twain in any public library, look under the letter “C,” for Clemens, Samuel Langhorne (1835-1910). One of the most beloved of American writers, Mark Twain was actually an invention. When we think of Twain, we imagine the wry humorist in the white suit, a celebrity stage performer reading his works and telling his stories to audiences in the American era he called “the Gilded Age.” But we could also imagine Twain and Clemens as twins, a man and an image that are not always distinguishable from one another.
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Monday, July 1, 2019: “The Decline of Tyranny and the Origins of Democracy at Athens” with Kevin Crotty
Kevin Crotty, the J. Donald Childress Professor of Classics, presents the first session from the Alumni College’s “The Golden Age of Athens.” One of the most astonishingly creative periods in human history occurred in a small city-state, Athens, in the fifth and fourth centuries before Christ. The very smallness of this city-state may have contributed to the intensity of its creativity and the splendor of its achievements in tragedy, comedy, architecture, sculpture, philosophy and history. Western culture has been pervasively indebted to these achievements ever since. And yet, the Athenians remain in many ways enticingly alien. Their religion, their laws, even their brand of democracy, while all central to their achievements, can’t help but strike modern students as unfamiliar and curious.
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Thursday, May 23, 2019: Undergraduate Commencement 2019
The 232nd undergraduate commencement will be held on Thursday, May 23, 2019, at 10:00 a.m. on the Front Lawn of the main campus.
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Friday, May 10, 2019: Law Commencement 2019
The 164th commencement ceremony for the Washington and Lee University School of Law will be held on Friday, May 10, 2019, at 10:00 a.m. on the Front Lawn of the main campus.
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Thursday, May 2, 2019: Reunion 2019 Opening Assembly / ODK Spring Initiation with Jim Farrar ’74
The spring Omicron Delta Kappa initiation and Alumni Weekend 2019 Reunion Opening Assembly will feature a keynote by Secretary of the University Jim Farrar ’74. The keynote address is titled “Being There.”
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Friday, April 26, 2019: Tom Wolfe Weekend Seminar with Best-Selling Author Delia Owens
This year marks the 16th annual Tom Wolfe Weekend Seminar, W&L’s ultimate book club. Sponsored by the W&L Class of 1951 in honor of their late classmate Tom Wolfe, the program honors a distinguished writer and observer of the American scene. Last year’s program featured Hampton Sides and his best-selling In the Kingdom of Ice, a narrative history of the USS Jeannette’s ill-fated attempt on the North Pole. This year, we turn to Delia Owens‘ critically acclaimed debut novel, Where the Crawdads Sing, described by The New York Times Book Review as “Painfully beautiful . . . At once a murder mystery, a coming-of-age narrative, and a celebration of nature.”
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Friday, March 29, 2019: Redenbaugh Lecture with Paul Youngman, “Why I Teach”
In this talk, Paul A. Youngman, Associate Provost and Harry E. and Mary Jayne W. Redenbaugh Professor of German, will discuss his personal journey to the classroom, the centrality of teaching at Washington and Lee, and how he, as well as the university, is adapting to the changing nature of knowledge production and therefore classroom teaching.
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Thursday, March 28, 2019: A Conversation About Reconciling Our History with Rev. Rob W. Lee IV and Prof. Ted DeLaney
A conversation with Rev. Rob W. Lee IV, the great-great-great-great nephew of Confederate Army General Robert E. Lee and W&L Professor Ted DeLaney, an African American and a Lexington native. Rev. Rob W. Lee IV an outspoken advocate of the Black Lives Matter movement will explore the history of his forefathers, his unique life experiences and what brought him to W&L University School of Law.
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Tuesday, March 26, 2019: A Conversation with Marty Baron, Executive Editor of the Washington Post
Martin “Marty” Baron became executive editor of The Washington Post on January 2, 2013. He oversees The Post’s print and digital news operations and a staff of more than 800 journalists. Newsrooms under his leadership have won 14 Pulitzer Prizes, including seven at The Washington Post. The Post, during his tenure, has won four times for national reporting, and once each for investigative reporting, explanatory reporting and public service, the latter in recognition of revelations of secret surveillance by the National Security Agency.
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Monday, March 18, 2019: Lee Chapel Spring Lecture with Jason Phillips
Dr. Phillips’s research focuses on ideas of the future in nineteenth-century America. Described as “the history of the future,” Phillips’s research uses memory studies to explain how war forecasts formed, spread, and competed for adherents during the Civil War era. Dr. Phillips will discuss how Civil War Americans imagined themselves in relation to the passage of time and impending conflict, and how this changed their ideas of the future. We hope that Dr. Phillips’s talk will help shed light on a new way for anyone interested in the Civil War an/or nineteenth century America to think about one of the most studied and controversial eras of history, especially in today’s political and cultural climate.
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Sunday, March 17, 2019: Phi Beta Kappa/Society of the Cincinnati Convocation with Frederick Lawrence
Frederick Lawrence is the current CEO/Secretary of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Lawrence is a Distinguished Lecturer at the Georgetown Law Center, and has previously served as president of Brandeis University, Dean of the George Washington University Law School, and Visiting Professor and Senior Research Scholar at Yale Law School. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2018 and the American Law Institute in 1999. An accomplished scholar, teacher and attorney, Lawrence is one of the nation’s leading experts on civil rights, free expression and bias crimes.
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Friday, March 1, 2019: Rewriting the Code – Women and Technology Keynote with Chelsea Barabas, “Dodging Silver Bullets: Understanding the Role of Technology in Social Change”
Chelsea Barabas is a research scientist at MIT, where she examines the spread of algorithmic decision-making tools in the US criminal justice system. Formerly, she was the Head of Social Innovation at the MIT Media Lab’s Digital Currency Initiative, where she examined the social and political implications of cryptocurrencies and decentralized digital infrastructure. She has explored a wide range of issues related to the use of emerging technologies to serve the public good–everything from citizen data collection in Brazil to conservation drones in Kenya and ed-tech workshops in Peru. Common across all her work is a general interest in building and critically examining technologies that aim to serve the public interest. Barabas’ keynote address is titled “Dodging Silver Bullets: Understanding the Role of Technology in Social Change.”
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Friday, March 1, 2019: Institute for Honor Symposium 2019 Keynote with George Will, “Lowering the Temperature, and the Stakes, of Politics”
George F. Will’s newspaper column has syndicated in the Washington Post since 1974. Today, it appears twice weekly in more than 440 newspapers. In 1976, he became a regular contributing editor of Newsweek magazine, for which he provided a bimonthly essay until 2011. In 1977, he won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary in his newspaper columns. In June 2019, Will will release his most recent work, “The Conservative Sensibility.” Altogether, eight collections of Will’s Newsweek and Washington Post columns have been published, the most recent being “One Man’s America: The Pleasures and Provocations of Our Singular Nation” (2008). In 1981, he became a founding panel member on ABC television’s “This Week” and spent over three decades providing regular commentary. After that, he spent three years with Fox News, where he appeared regularly on “Special Report” and “Fox News Sunday.” Will is now a regular contributor to MSNBC and NBC News.
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Sunday, January 27, 2019: MLK Legacy Week Keynote Address with Rev. Dr. William Barber, II
W&L’s culminating event to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The keynote speaker will be Rev. Dr. William Barber, II. Barber is president and senior lecturer at the nonprofit organization Repairers of the Breach; co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival; bishop with the College of Affirming Bishops and Faith Leaders; visiting professor at Union Theological Seminary; pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church, Disciples of Christ in Goldsboro, North Carolina; and the author of three books.
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Tuesday, January 22, 2019: Founders Day/Omicron Delta Kappa Convocation 2019 with Christy Coleman
Christy Coleman, CEO of the American Civil War Museum, will be the featured speaker at Washington and Lee University’s Founders Day/Omicron Delta Kappa Convocation. The title of her talk, which is free and open to the public, is “In Times Like These: Responsive and Responsible Leadership. “Coleman’s address will precede the induction of undergraduate students, law students and honorary initiates into membership in Omicron Delta Kappa, a national leadership honor society for college students, faculty, staff and administrators that was founded at Washington and Lee in 1914. The University Singers will perform.
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2018
Thursday, December 13, 2018: The State of the University 2018 with President Will Dudley
Executive Director of Alumni Affairs Beau Dudley sits down with President Will Dudley to talk about the state of the University.
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Thursday, December 6, 2018: Candlelight Service: A Festival of Lessons and Carols
An annual tradition at Washington and Lee University dating back more than 80 years, the Candlelight Service featuring the University Singers, weaves together the sacred narration of the Christmas story through music, prayers, lessons and hymns. The telling of the Incarnation in this manner binds countries and cultures dating back hundreds of years. From traditional favorites to modern masterpieces, let text and music intertwine for a peaceful evening unlike any other in Lexington.
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Monday, November 12, 2018: Salena Zito, National Political Reporter
Salena Zito, a national political reporter, will give a public talk on the electoral shift that supported Donald Trump’s victory in 2016 and reflect upon the upcoming elections. Zito is the co-author of “The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics.”
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Thursday, November 9, 2018: 66th Institute on Media Ethics, “Keeping Our House in Order: Being Ethical While under Attack”
The Washington and Lee Knight Program in Media Ethics presents the 66th Ethics Institute on Friday, November 9, 2018, at 5:30 p.m. Six nationally prominent journalists will offer insight on how to avoid pitfalls while navigating the 21st Century media landscape.
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Friday, November 2, 2018: Five-Star Festival • Preview of the Midterm Congressional Elections
W&L Politics Professor Brian Alexander and Terry Cooper, expert political consultant with Cooper Research, will give a preview of the midterm elections that will occur only a few days later.
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Wednesday, October 31, 2018: A Conversation with David Barstow of the New York Times
David Barstow, investigative reporter at the New York Times, has won three Pulitzer Prizes for his coverage of the Pentagon, Wal-Mart and dangerous workplaces. Barstow will discuss his coverage of the Trump administration and other projects.
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Monday, October 8, 2018: Lee Chapel Fall Lecture with David Cox, “Lee Chapel at 150 – Redefining a Symbol”
David Cox will give a talk that focuses on the changing nature of Lee Chapel as a symbol over the years, tracing its history from its original purpose to how it has been perceived and used by the community up until today.
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Tuesday, September 25, 2018: Who is America?! A Response to Michael Anton’s Constitution Day Lecture
The panel discussion, which is free and open to the public, is titled “Who Is America?! A Response to Michael Anton’s Constitution Day Lecture.” The panelists will share their expertise on the Constitution, the law and immigration. Panelist members include Kameliya Atanasova, assistant professor of religion, David Baluarte, associate clinical professor of law and director of Immigrants Rights Clinic, and Mohamed Kamara, associate professor of romance languages.
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Tuesday, September 18, 2018: Constitution Day Speaker • Michael Anton
Michael Anton, lecturer in politics and research fellow at the Hillsdale College Kirby Center, will deliver Washington and Lee University’s Constitution Day lecture. His talk about constitutional self-government and the Trump presidency. Informed by his own experience in the Trump administration, Anton will give a status report about what President Trump’s policies have meant for America’s constitutional way of life.
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Wednesday, September 5, 2018: Fall Convocation 2018 with Dr. Theordore C. DeLaney, Jr ’85
Fall Convocation 2018 features an address by Dr. Theodore C. DeLaney, Jr. ’85, associate professor of history at Washington and Lee University. His speech is titled “W&L History: Traditions, Transformations, and the Consequences of Change.”
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Thursday, July 26, 2018: Ludwig van Beethoven: An Overview of the Late Style with Tim Gaylard
Tim Gaylard, Professor of Music, presents the first session from Alumni College’s “Final Thunder: Beethoven’s Late Music.” Beethoven, the pivotal composer in musical history, continues to fascinate us despite the two centuries that distance us from his lifetime. Somehow he reaches us emotionally, and his music continues to speak with great power and strength. In 2006 we looked at his entire life and output. This time we will focus on the works of his late period.
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Monday, July 23, 2018: Approaching Benjamin Franklin: Contexts and Personae with Marc Conner
Marc Conner, Provost and the Jo and James Ballengee Professor of English, presents the first session from Alumni College’s “The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin.” Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) is arguably the most beloved and the most accessible of the Founding Fathers. A printer, publisher, and postmaster by trade and an inventor and scientist by avocation, a keen observer of his times and his fellow citizens, a tireless writer given to wit and sound reasoning, Franklin is especially revered for his service to his countrymen and countrywomen at the time of their greatest need, the founding of the republic.
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Monday, July 16, 2018: A Bird’s-Eye View: Rome and Its Past with George Bent
George Bent, the Sidney Gause Childress Professor of Art, presents the first session from the Alumni College’s “The Eternal City: Rome through the Centuries.” With some 28 centuries of recorded history, Rome is one of Europe’s oldest continuously inhabited cities. But what makes Rome venerable is not so much its age but what the Eternal City has witnessed through the centuries.
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Monday, July 9, 2018: The Art of Detective Fiction: A Writer’s View with Ted Blaine ’74
Ted Blain ’74 presents the first session from Alumni College’s “Whodunits: The Art of Detective Fiction.” No popular literature has a more dedicated following than the mystery novel. Foremost among the reasons for its popularity is that mystery fiction provides the entertainment of a well-constructed puzzle, one that challenges the reader to discover whodunit. Within that genre, detective fiction offers the dark and gnarled pleasure of a crime at its center, one that requires a detective-the reader’s friend and persona-to solve the puzzle. The best examples also tell a good story with provocative dialog, interesting characters, and a clear eye to setting and arresting detail. Most of all, they are simply fun intellectually.
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Wednesday, May 30, 2018: Author R. David Cox presents “Lee Chapel at 150: A History”
Historic Lexington Foundation sponsored a presentation by R. David Cox on his new book, Lee Chapel at 150, which commemorates the 150th anniversary of Washington and Lee University’s chapel. Dr. Cox discusses the challenges of the planning, the design, and the purpose of the chapel and it’s evolution.
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Thursday, May 24, 2018: Undergraduate Commencement 2018
The 231st undergraduate commencement was held on Thursday, May 24, 2018, at 10:00 a.m. on the Front Lawn of the main campus.
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Saturday, May 5, 2018: Law Commencement 2018
The 163rd commencement ceremony for the Washington and Lee University School of Law was held on Saturday, May 5, 2018, at 10:00 a.m. on the Front Lawn of the main campus.
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Friday, April 27, 2018: 50th Reunion Panel Looks Back at 1968
Alex Jones ’68 moderates a panel discussion about the watershed year that was 1968 and what advice the class has collected over the past 50 years to pass on to W&L’s Class of 2018.
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Friday, April 20, 2018: Tom Wolfe Weekend Seminar • Hampton Sides, author of “In the Kingdom of Ice”
This year marks the 15th annual Tom Wolfe Weekend Seminar, W&L’s ultimate book club. Sponsored by the W&L Class of 1951 in honor of classmate Tom Wolfe, the program honors a distinguished writer and observer of the American scene. This year’s seminar will feature Hampton Sides, author of the best-selling, critically acclaimed In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette, a narrative history of the USS Jeannette’s ill-fated attempt to reach the North Pole. Other works by Sides include Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II’s Greatest Rescue Mission (2001), Americana: Dispatches from the New Frontier (2004), Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West (2006), and Hellhound on His Trail: The Electrifying Account of the Largest Manhunt in American History (2010). Among its many recognitions, In the Kingdom of Ice was selected as a Best Book of the Year (2014) by USA Today, Time, The Washington Post, The Miami Herald, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Richmond Times Dispatch. Even with such enthusiasm and scores of rave reviews, its ever-expanding readership seems to be a product of word-of-mouth. It is no wonder, for this is a book that begs sharing with anyone interested in American history, global exploration, and our evolving understanding of the powerful forces shaping our most forbidding environments.
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Wednesday, March 21, 2018: “Did Robert E. Lee Commit Treason?” with Dr. Allen Guelzo
Dr. Allen Guelzo, Henry R. Luce III Professor of the Civil War Era at Gettysburg College, and Director of the Civil War Era Studies Program, currently at work on a major new biography of Robert E. Lee, will deliver a lecture with an accompanying faculty colloquium and a followup community discussion.
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Sunday, March 18, 2018: Phi Beta Kappa/Society of the Cincinnati Convocation with Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu
The Phi Beta Kappa chapter at Washington and Lee University will induct new members into the prestigious honor society at the Phi Beta Kappa/Society of the Cincinnati Convocation on March 18 at 3 p.m. in Lee Chapel. The keynote speaker will be Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu, professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, Program in Health and Human Performance. His talk is titled “A Heartful Way of Living with Mindfulness, Compassion and Responsibility.”
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Friday, March 16, 2018: Institute for Honor • John Witte, Jr., “Separation of Church and State in American History and Today: Facts, Fictions, and Future Challenges”
Renowned law and religion scholar, Emory University’s John Witte, Jr., will deliver a keynote address, “Separation of Church and State in American History and Today: Facts, Fictions, and Future Challenges.”
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Friday, March 9, 2018: 65th Institute in Media Ethics Keynote with Sree Sreenivasan
Sree is a social and digital consultant for nonprofits, startups and executives. He is the former chief digital officer of Columbia University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and New York City.
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Thursday, February 15, 2018: Conversation on Race and Hope by authors of “We Are Charleston: Tragedy and Triumph at Mother Emanuel”
Washington and Lee University offers a moderated conversation with journalist Herb Frazier, historian Bernard Edward Powers and poet Marjory Wentworth. These Charleston authors will recount what they learned about what took place, how it happened, and the reverberations that followed the shooting at the historic Mother Emanuel AME Church. Their talk will examine the critical issues surrounding the tragedy and triumph that took place. It will also address in meaningful ways such divisive issues such as gun violence, racism and increasing social tensions. They will share the lessons learned and how those lessons might benefit our community-especially in the light of what happened in Charlottesville.
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Monday, February 12, 2018: Professor W. Fitzhugh Brundage, “A Vexing and Awkward Dilemma: The Legacy of a Confederate Landscape”
An invited lecture by Professor W. Fitzhugh Brundage, William B. Umstead Professor of History and Chair, Department of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His talk is titled “A Vexing and Awkward Dilemma: The Legacy of a Confederate Landscape.”
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Thursday, February 1, 2018: Contact Presents “An Evening with Mia Hamm”
The Contact Committee is delighted and proud to be participating in the week-long celebration of the 45th Anniversary of the Title IX legislation that has moved us towards the equal treatment of women and men, not just in the world of sports, but as a society on the whole. We are pleased to be sponsoring Mia Hamm’s keynote address to the student body. As one of the foremost athletes of our day, we are anxious to hear what Mia has in store for the W&L student body.
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Thursday, January 18, 2018: Founders Day/ODK Convocation 2018 featuring Dr. Charles Dew
Dr. Charles Dew, professor of history at Williams College, will deliver our annual Founder’s Day address. The title of his address will be “The Making, and Unmaking, of a Racist.” Omicron Delta Kappa will also be initiating new members.
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2017
Thursday, December 7, 2017: Candlelight Service, A Festival of Lessons and Carols
An annual tradition at W&L dating back more than 80 years, the Candlelight Service featuring the University Singers weaves together the sacred narration of the Christmas story through music, prayers, lessons, and hymns. The telling of the Incarnation in this manner binds countries and cultures, dating back hundreds of years. From traditional favorites like Paul J. Christiansen’s “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly” to modern masterpieces like Malcolm Sargent’s “Silent Night,” let text and music intertwine for a peaceful evening unlike any other in Lexington.
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Saturday, December 2, 2017: Memorial Service for Lew John ’58
Lewis George John, professor of politics emeritus at Washington and Lee University, died on Nov. 6, 2017, in Lexington. He was 80. During his 43 years at W&L, John, a 1958 graduate of the university, also served as dean of students and director of financial aid. Read the full obituary on the Columns.
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Saturday, November 18, 2017: Memorial Service for Dr. J.D. Futch
Jefferson Davis Futch III, professor of history emeritus, who taught at Washington and Lee University for 46 years until his retirement in 2008, died on Sept. 21, 2017, in Lexington, Virginia. He was 85.
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Thursday, November 9, 2017: Shepherd Program 20th Celebration Keynote with Allison Pugh
Following the theme “Poverty, Inequality and Work Today,” UVA Professor of Sociology Allison Pugh will draw on her book, “The Tumbleweed Society,” to argue that the widespread conviction that job precariousness is inevitable and pervasive means people construct a “moral wall” between work and home in a talk entitled “The Tumbleweed Society: What Happens When People Assume Job Insecurity Is Inevitable.”
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Wednesday, November 8, 2017: Sustained Outrage, A Discussion of the West Virginia Opioid Epidemic
The Journalism Department at Washington and Lee University will host a conversation between Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Eric Eyre and First Amendment attorney Patrick McGinley. Eyre, and McGinley, will discuss the investigation, including the use of the Freedom of Information Act to obtain documents related to their story.
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Friday, November 3, 2017: 64th Ethics Institute in Journalism Keynote with Bob Steele, “Reflecting Before Reacting: Why Ethics Matters”
64th Ethics Institute in Journalism Keynote with Bob Steele, the Nelson Poynter Scholar for Journalism Values. The title of his talk is “Reflecting Before Reacting: Why Ethics Matters.”
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Thursday, November 2, 2017: Blaine Brownell on the History of W&L
Blaine Brownell, author of Washington and Lee University, 1930-2000: Tradition and Transformation will deliver a lecture on the History of W&L.
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Wednesday, October 18, 2017: “Unpresidented: Governing in the Age of Chaos” with Jonathan Rauch
Jonathan Rauch is a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution. He is the author of six books and many articles on public policy, culture, and government. He is a contributing editor of The Atlantic and recipient of the 2005 National Magazine Award, the magazine industry’s equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize. His many Brookings publications include the 2015 ebook Political Realism: How Hacks, Machines, Big Money, and Back-Room Deals Can Strengthen American Democracy, as well as research on political parties, marijuana legalization, health care, and more. This talk is part of the Conversations in the Age of Trump lecture series. It is sponsored by the Williams School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics and the 2016-18 Center for International Education Colloquium on Borders and Their Human Impact with the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
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Monday, October 9, 2017: Remembering Robert E. Lee with Kenneth Noe
“‘A Storm to Destroy My Hopes’: Weather and Robert E. Lee’s Cheat Mountain Campaign.” A lecture by Kenneth Noe, Draughon Professor of Southern History at Auburn University and author of The Civil War in Appalachia.
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Friday, September 29, 2017: Dr. Alfred Brophy: Debating Slavery and Freedom at Washington College 1831-1861
On Friday, Sept. 29 at noon in the Millhiser Moot Court Room, distinguished legal historian Alfred Brophy, the D. Paul Jones Professor of Law at the University of Alabama, will deliver a lecture at Washington and Lee School of Law titled “Debating Slavery and Freedom at Washington College 1831-1861.”
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Thursday, September 28, 2017: Mudd Center Distinguished Speaker Tariq Ramadan, “Equality As a Social Requirement and a Human Ideal”
The Mudd Center’s annual Distinguished Lecture will be given this year by Tariq Ramadan, professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at St Antony’s College, Oxford. His talk is entitled: “Equality As a Social Requirement and a Human Ideal.” Professor Ramadan is a Swiss academic, philosopher and writer. He works primarily on Islamic theology and the position of Muslims in the West and within Muslim majority countries. Generally speaking, he prioritizes Qur’anic interpretation over simply reading the text, in order to understand its meaning and to practice the tenets of Islamic philosophy.
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Tuesday, September 26, 2017: Journalism in the Time of Trump with David Fahrenthold, Washington Post Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter
Washington and Lee University’s journalism and mass communications department along with the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation will host national reporter from the Washington Post, David A. Fahrenthold on Sept. 26 in Stackhouse theatre at 5 p.m. His talk is titled: “Journalism in the time of Trump” and is free and open to the public.
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Tuesday, September 19, 2017: Translating Aimé Césaire: A conversation with A. James Arnold and Clayton Eshleman
A. James Arnold and Clayton Eshleman will discuss Martinicquan poet, author and politician Aimé Césaire and his work.
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Sunday, September 17, 2017: Constitution Day Speaker, Colonel Ty Seidule ’84
Constitution Day Speaker, Colonel Ty Seidule ’84 will give a public lecture “Robert E. Lee and Me: Reflections on Confederate Memory by a W&L Graduate, Soldier and Scholar”
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Saturday, September 16, 2017: Inauguration of President Will Dudley
As part of Young Alumni Weekend and Homecoming, Washington and Lee will be celebrating the inauguration of President Will Dudley at 10:00 AM on the front lawn of the Colonnade.
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Friday, September 15, 2017: The Liberal Arts and the Professions
Washington and Lee University hosted a panel discussion on “The Liberal Arts and the Professions” as part of William C. Dudley’s inauguration as the university’s 27th president. The panel is moderated by Suzanne Keen, dean of the College and Thomas H. Broadus Professor of English. Panelists include Kelly Evans Chemi ’07, representing journalism; William H. Miller III ’72 representing finance; Dr. Harold E. Varmus representing medicine; and the Hon. Gregory H. Woods representing law.
Wednesday, September 6, 2017: Fall Convocation 2017 with Dr. Danielle S. Allen
Dr. Danielle S. Allen, Director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics and James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, will present “Democracy 101: We Hold These Truths….”
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Thursday, July 20, 2017: The Presidency of John Fitzgerald Kennedy: An Overview with Barry Machado
Barry Machado, professor of history emeritus, presents “The Presidency of John Fitzgerald Kennedy: An Overview.” This lecture is part of the Alumni College’s summer program, Camelot Reconsidered: The Presidency of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
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Monday, July 17, 2017: From Breughel to Steen: The Painting of Everyday Life with George Bent
George Bent, The Sidney Gause Childress Professor of Art, presents “From Breughel to Steen: The Painting of Everyday Life.” This lecture is part of the Alumni College’s summer program, Rembrandt and the Dutch Golden Age.
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Monday, July 10, 2017: James Joyce and the Writing of Dublin with Marc Conner
Marc Conner, provost and the Jo and James Ballengee Professor of English, presents “James Joyce and the Writing of Dublin.” This lecture is part of the Alumni College’s summer program, The Ireland of Yeats and Joyce.
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Monday, June 26, 2017: The Rise of the Third Republic: Political, Social, and Cultural Contexts with Sarah Horowitz
Sarah Horowitz, associate professor of history, presents “The Rise of the Third Republic: Political, Social, and Cultural Contexts.” This lecture is part of the Alumni College’s summer program, La Belle Époque: France and the Rise of Modernism.
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Thursday, May 25, 2017: Undergraduate Commencement 2017
The 230th undergraduate commencement will be held on Thursday, May 25, 2017, at 10:00 a.m. on the Front Lawn of the main campus. The Baccalaureate Service will be held the day before, on Wednesday, May 24, 2017, at 10:00 a.m., also on the Front Lawn.
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Thursday, May 11, 2017: Reunion 2017 Opening Assembly / ODK Spring Initiation
Reunion 2017 kickoff features ODK Spring Initiation and keynote speaker Provost Marc Conner.
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Saturday, May 6, 2017: Law Commencement 2017
The 162nd commencement ceremony for the Washington and Lee University School of Law will be held on Saturday, May 6, 2017, at 10:00 a.m. on the Front Lawn of the main campus.
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Wednesday, April 26, 2017: Holocaust Remembrance with Captain Alex Keisch
Join us in marking Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, with a lecture by Holocaust refugee Captain Alex Keisch. Captain Keisch will speak on the story of his family’s survival of the Holocaust. He sees that “genocides are the cumulative result of centuries of bullying,” and he teaches a simple lesson for stopping bullies today, breaking the cycle of genocide.
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Tuesday, April 4, 2017: Online Discussion: “You Are the New Gatekeeper of the News” with Aly Colón, Knight Professor of Journalism Ethics at Washington and Lee
News consumers today face a flood of fake news and alternative information. Join this timely online meet-up with journalism ethics professor Aly Colón to explore forces of change in the new media landscape as we become responsible for deciding how we filter what’s news and what’s not. In this 1.5 hour session, Professor Colón will frame the conversation with historical examples and point to emerging trends in the digital age of news where Velocity + Volume = Volatility. As an ethical agent of journalism, how can you cultivate a mindset of open inquiry and deepen your capacities to handle challenging or uncomfortable views, especially in online settings?
Monday, March 27, 2017: Executive in Residence Sandy Whann ’86
Once a semester, the Williams School invites someone who has excelled in business to return to campus as an Executive-in-Residence. The Executive-in-Residence spends several days on campus meeting with students, visiting classes and providing one-on-one career mentoring. As a part of the visit, the Executive-in-Residence typically gives a public address on a topic related to his or her expertise. Sandy Whann is president of Leidenheimer Baking Company and the fourth generation of his family to operate the bakery that was founded in 1896 by his great-grandfather.
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Sunday, March 19, 2017: Phi Beta Kappa Convocation 2017 with William Tsutsui
The Phi Beta Kappa chapter at Washington and Lee University inducted new members into the prestigious honor society at the Phi Beta Kappa/Society of the Cincinnati Convocation on Sunday, March 19, at 3 p.m. in Lee Chapel. The keynote speaker was William M. (Bill) Tsutsui, president and professor of history at Hendrix College. He spoke on “The Liberal Arts in an Age of Extremes.”
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Friday, March 10, 2017: 63rd Institute in Media Ethics Keynote with Jill Geisler
Jill Geisler, the Bill Plante Chair in Leadership and Media Integrity at Loyola University Chicago, delivered the keynote address at Washington and Lee University’s 63rd Institute in Media Ethics on March 10. She will spoke on “Truth and Trust: Lead from Where You Are.” The institute is funded by the Knight Program in Media Ethics and is co-sponsored by W&L’s Department of Journalism and Mass Communications.
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Thursday, March 9, 2017: ‘Alternative Facts’ and the Search for the Truth: Journalism in the Age of Trump
A panel discussion with Olivia Nuzzi, Washington correspondent for New York Magazine; Rosie Gray, politics and global affairs writer for The Atlantic; Michael Hudson, a senior editor at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists; Paul Gregory, associate professor of philosophy at W&L and Toni Locy, professor of journalism at W&L.
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Thursday, March 9, 2017: Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, “The Causes and Consequences of Food Insecurity”
Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, associate professor of education and social policy at Northwestern University and director of The Hamilton Project, will speak on “The Causes and Consequences of Food Insecurity” on March 9 at 6:30 p.m. in Stackhouse Theater. Diane’s recent work has focused on tracing the impact of major public policies such as the Food Stamp Program and early childhood education on children’s long-term outcomes. The lecture is free and open to the public.
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Friday, March 3, 2017: AdLib 2017 • War Stories
Short presentations by Gerard McKee ’08 (Group Director, Crossmedia), Elizabeth Dawson ’07 (Email Marketing Manager, ThinkGeek) and Swan Burrus ’12 (Strategist, OgilvyOne Worldwide)
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Friday, March 3, 2017: AdLib 2017 • Jeffrey Buntin, Jr., President and CEO of The Buntin Group
Jeffrey Buntin, Jr. is President and CEO of The Buntin Group, which is Tennessee’s largest agency, among the top 35 independent firms nationally and an ADWEEK-recognized “Top U.S. Shop.” Despite being “strongly encouraged to consider other things,” Jeffrey found himself early in his career with a love of the business and also the son of the founder of the firm he now owns and leads. With a tour through Chicago working for a predecessor agency to DraftFCB, Jeffrey returned to Nashville to start the strategy capability the agency still uses today and, in the process, embarked on a journey to acquire the firm from his father. Having led the shop now since 2004, The Buntin Group claims an impressive roster of national brands, has been recognized by the Jay Chiat Awards, been an EFFIE finalist, has taken home multiple “Media Plan of the Year” awards, an OBIE Hall of Fame and creative accolades at all levels. Despite all this, what Jeffrey says he is perhaps most proud of is that he has never lost the values he learned growing up on a family farm an hour outside of Nashville. A graduate of the W&L class of 1995, Jeffrey and his wife Kemp have three children ages 13, 10 and 6 – and, when he is not chasing them around, Jeffrey is active on multiple boards in the advertising, educational and financial sectors and in numerous volunteer capacities. His talk will be “Values at the Crossroads of Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going.”
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Thursday, January 19, 2017: Founders’ Day/ Omicron Delta Kappa Convocation 2017 with Jonathan Holloway
Jonathan Holloway, historian of post-emancipation American history and black intellectualism and Dean of Yale College, is the featured speaker at Washington and Lee University’s Founders Day-Omicron Delta Kappa Convocation on Jan. 19 at 5 p.m. in Lee Chapel. Holloway speaks on the topic, “The Price of Recognition: Race and the Making of the Modern University.”
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2016
Thursday, December 8, 2016: Candlelight Service, A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
This 80-minute performance is an annual tradition at W&L dating back more than 80 years. The candlelight service featuring the University Singers weaves together the sacred narration of the Christmas story through music, prayers, lessons and hymns. The telling of the Incarnation in this manner binds countries and cultures, dating back hundreds of years. From traditional favorites like Paul J. Christiansen’s “Infant Holy Infant Lowly” to modern masterpieces like Matthew Culloton’s “Still, Still, Still,” let text and music intertwine for a peaceful evening unlike any other in Lexington.
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Monday, November 28, 2016: German Law Journal Symposium • “Constitutional Dimensions of the Refugee Crisis”
“Constitutional Dimensions of the Refugee Crisis” with Prof. Klaus Gärditz (Germany), Boldizsár Nagy (Hungary), Prof. Wolfgang Benedek (Austria), Prof. Mario Savino (Italy) and Colt Justice (W&L Law ‘18, France).
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Tuesday, November 15, 2016: Executive-in-Residence John Donaldson ’92, “Streaming Wars and the Future of Music”
John Donaldson ’92 serves on the senior leadership team of Pandora where he leads corporate development, business development and strategy. Prior to assuming this role, he spent eight years at Microsoft leading strategy and corporate development for Xbox. John graduated with honors from Washington and Lee University and the University of Virginia School of Law. The title of his talk is “Streaming Wars and the Future of Music.”
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Thursday, November 10, 2016: Andrew Blick, “The Meaning of Brexit”
Andrew Blick, director of History & Policy and lecturer at King’s College London, will speak on “The Meaning of Brexit” on Nov. 10 at 5 p.m. in Huntley Hall 327 on the campus of Washington and Lee University. Blick specializes in the study of the U.K. constitution and democratic reform and is the author of books on the history of special advisers to ministers, the office of Prime Minister, and of No.10 aides. His most recent work is Beyond Magna Carta: A Constitution For The United Kingdom (Hart, 2015). He is currently writing The Codes of the Constitution, a study of the use of codes of conduct setting out core features of the UK system.
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Wednesday, November 9, 2016: Beth Macy, “Reporting from the Margins: 30 Years of Covering Exploitation, Greed and Race”
Beth Macy, a former reporter at The Roanoke Times, just released her new book, Truevine, about two African-American brothers who were kidnapped by the circus in the Jim Crow South. Macy is the author of a New York Times bestseller, Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local — and Helped Save an American Town.
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Friday, November 4, 2016: 62nd Ethics in Journalism Institute Keynote • “Combating the Brutality of Bias” by Keith Woods
Keith Woods, NPR Vice President for Diversity in News and Operations, delivers the 62nd Ethics in Journalism Institute Keynote address titled, “Combating the Brutality of Bias.” Woods leads the development of NPR‘s vision and strategy for diversity as a member of the Executive Leadership Team and the Office of the President. His focus: to help NPR and member stations strengthen the breadth and depth of diversity in content, staff, audience and the work environment. He serves as a resource to work teams and individuals at NPR and stations who share these goals.
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Friday, November 4, 2016: Institute for Honor • The European Refugee Crisis: The Search for a Moral Response with Ambassador Peter Wittig
Peter Wittig, German Ambassador to the United States, delivers the keynote address at Washington and Lee University’s Institute for Honor Symposium “The European Refugee Crisis: The Search for a Moral Response” on Friday, Nov. 4 at 4 p.m. in Lee Chapel. Wittig speaks on “German Policy Toward the European Refugee Crisis.”
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Saturday, October 15, 2016: Law and Literature Weekend Seminar • Shakespeare’s King’s Lear with Marc Conner
In its unparalleled run of 23 years, the Alumni College’s Law and Literature Weekend Seminar has relied on a highly effective model: gathering professors and participants to study a single work of literature from legal, ethical, and literary perspectives. The results can be exhilarating. Each fall, the School of Law chooses a compelling text, assembles a team of professors, invites participants to Lexington, and clears the way for a unique sharing of ideas and responses. The 2016 program will focus on William Shakespeare’s King Lear. We all know that Shakespeare is the greatest playwright in the English language. But Shakespeare’s powerful intellect also places him among our most profound thinkers on issues of justice, law, punishment, and history.
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Monday, October 10, 2016: Remembering Robert E. Lee with Holt Merchant, “Under A Cloud: Lee Meets the Challenges of Reconstruction, 1865-1870”
Holt Merchant, Professor of history emeritus and author gives the 2016 Remembering Robert E. Lee lecture, “Under A Cloud: Lee Meets the Challenges of Reconstruction, 1865-1870.”
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Friday, October 7, 2016: German Law in Context Keynote Speaker • “The European Migration Crisis: Ethical and Political Issues” with Prof. David Miller
David Miller, professor of political theory, University of Oxford, and official fellow in social and political theory, Nuffield College, Oxford, will give the keynote address for the German Law in Context Program at Washington and Lee University School of Law on Oct. 7 at 3 p.m. in Millhiser Moot Court Room, Lewis Hall. The title of his talk is “The European Migration Crisis: Ethical and Political Issues.” It is free and open to the public. “Professor Miller is one of the world’s leading scholars and commentators on issues of citizenship, identity and migration,” said Russell Miller, professor of law at W&L. He is the author, editor and co-editor of 19 books, including “Strangers in Our Midst: the Political Philosophy of Immigration” (2016); “Justice for Earthlings: Essays in Political Philosophy” (2013); and “Michael Walzer: Thinking Politically” (ed., 2007).
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Thursday, October 6, 2016: Mudd Center Distinguished Lecture with Peter Singer, “Permitting the Sale of Meat but not Kidneys or Sex? Some Questions about Markets and Morals”
The Mudd Center for Ethics will kick off its year-long exploration into Markets & Morals with a lecture by Dr. Peter Singer. Dr. Singer’s lecture is titled: “Permitting the Sale of Meat but not Kidneys or Sex? Some Questions about Markets and Morals.” Please visit our website for more information about Dr. Singer as well as the Mudd Center’s other upcoming speakers.
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Friday, September 23, 2016: Entrepreneurship Summit Keynote by Ben Sutton, “Entrepreneurship in the World of Sports”
Ben Sutton was Chairman/CEO of IMG College, the largest college sports marketing company in the United States and top college or professional sports sales organization in the country. In addition to founding and building the core businesses of IMG College, he oversaw the meteoric growth of the company which employs 1,000 in 100 locations across the U.S. IMG College is the national market leader in 4 different enterprises, with 450 university clients. This includes multi-media, ticketing, stadium seating and trademark management. Sutton’s primary board activities include Wake Forest University, Reagan Foundation, the United States Olympic Committee and the National Football Foundation. In addition to being named one of most powerful sports executives in America, Sutton has received numerous awards including WFU Distinguished Alumni award, NACDA Hall of Fame and Order of the Long Leaf Pine (highest honor in NC). He received B.A. and J.D. degrees from Wake Forest.
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Thursday, September 22, 2016: Civil War History and Digital Humanities with Dr. Edward Ayers
The title of Ayers’ talk, which is free and open to the public, is “Civil War History and Digital Humanities.” His talk is sponsored by the Digital Humanities Committee and funded through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Ayers has written and edited 11 books including The Promise of the New South: Life after Reconstruction, which was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In the Presence of Mine Enemies: Civil War in the Heart of America, 1859-1863 won the Bancroft Prize for distinguished writing in American history. A pioneer in digital history, Ayers’ website, The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War, has attracted millions of users and has won major prizes in teaching of history. He is the co-editor of the Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States at the University of Richmond and is co-host for BackStory with the American History Guys, a nationally syndicated public radio program. In 2013, Ayers received the National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama.
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Monday, July 18, 2016: Alumni College • “This Side of Paradise: Fitzgerald’s Romantic Imagination” with Marc Conner
Marc Conner, interim provost and the Jo M. and James Ballengee Professor of English, presents an Alumni College lecture, “This Side of Paradise: Fitzgerald’s Romantic Imagination.”
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Monday, July 11, 2016: Alumni College • “Into the Inferno: The Rise of Despots And the Crisis of Communal Independence” with David Peterson
David Peterson, professor and chair of the department of history, presents an Alumni College lecture, “Into the Inferno: The Rise of Despots And the Crisis of Communal Independence.”
View the video: Archived Event -OR- Upgraded Vimeo version (coming soon)
Thursday, July 7, 2016: Alumni College • “Leonard Bernstein: An Overview of the Life and Career” with Timothy Gaylard
Timothy Gaylard, professor of music, presents an Alumni College lecture, “Leonard Bernstein: An Overview of the Life and Career.”
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Thursday, June 30, 2016: Alumni College • “‘The Speech’: Goldwater, Reagan and The Origins of Modern American Conservatism” with Molly Michelmore
Molly Michelmore, Associate Professor of History, presents an Alumni College lecture, “‘The Speech’: Goldwater, Reagan and The Origins of Modern American Conservatism.”
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Thursday, May 26, 2016: Undergraduate Commencement 2016
The 229th undergraduate commencement will be held on Thursday, May 26, 2016, at 10:00 a.m. on the Front Lawn of the main campus. The Baccalaureate Service will be held the day before, on Wednesday, May 25, 2016, at 10:00 a.m., also on the Front Lawn.
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Saturday, May 7, 2016: Law Commencement 2016
The 161st commencement ceremony for the Washington and Lee University School of Law will be held on Saturday, May 7, 2016, at 10:00 a.m. on the Front Lawn of the main campus.
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Thursday, April 28, 2016: Reunion 2016 Opening Assembly / ODK Spring Initiation
Reunion 2016 kickoff features ODK Spring Initiation and keynote speaker President Ken P. Ruscio ’76, with an address titled, “A Timeless Trust.”
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Wednesday, April 6, 2016: Shakespeare 2016! with Quentin Skinner, “Why Shylock Loses his Case: Judicial Rhetoric in The Merchant of Venice”
Quentin Skinner, the Barber Beaumont Professor of the Humanities at Queen Mary University of London and an intellectual historian, gave two lectures at Washington and Lee University on April 4 and April 6. W&L’s Mudd Center sponsored both talks. On April 6, Skinner spoke on “Why Shylock Loses his Case: Judicial Rhetoric in ‘The Merchant of Venice’” at 5 p.m. in the Hillel House Multipurpose Room (101). This lecture on Shakespeare is part of his weeklong residency at W&L under the auspices of the Mudd Center.
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Thursday, March 31, 2016: Dr. Rachel Adato (former member of Knesset) on Israeli Healthcare and Social Issues
Dr. Rachel Adato is an Israeli doctor, lawyer, politician and former member of the Knesset for Kadima and Hatnuah between 2009 and 2013. Dr. Adato was the first female gynecologist in Jerusalem and practiced medicine for twelve years before moving to administrative hospital positions within Jerusalem. During her tenure in the Knesset, Adato was the chairperson of the Welfare and Health Committee, focusing mainly on public health care and women’s health. Dr. Adato is a champion of healthy body image, having been vocal in Israel’s “Photoshop Law” which banned ads featuring underweight models and an outspoken advocate of provisions to make healthy food cheaper and more accessible. She has been instrumental in the administration of other health-related issues, including benefits for disabled veterans, health care for the elderly, and emergency hospital services. Dr. Adato’s presentation is appropriate for the entire student body as well as the surrounding campus community, particularly those with a foundation in health sciences. This program is sponsored by Hillel International as part of Dr. Adato’s US Campus tour. W&L co-sponsors are: Department of Sociology/Anthropology and Shepherd Poverty Program.
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Tuesday, March 29, 2016: “How the Jewish writer Josephus shaped Christianity” with Tessa Rajak
British historian of Hellenistic and Roman-era Judaism. Born in London and educated at Oxford, Rajak became professor of ancient history at the University of Reading, a leading historian of the cultural history of the Jews in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. She is particularly known for her work on *Josephus, and is the author of Josephus: The Historian and His Society (1982) as well as The Jewish Dialogue With Greece and Rome: Studies in Cultural and Social Interaction (2000) and other works. She was the editor of The Journal of Jewish Studies.
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Saturday, March 19, 2016: The Institute for Honor Symposium • “Lincoln and the Press during Wartime” with Harold Holzer
Harold Holzer, winner of the 2015 Lincoln Book Prize for Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion, will speak on Lincoln and the press during wartime.
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Saturday, March 19, 2016: The Institute for Honor Symposium • “Tweetstorms: Facts, Factoids, and Myths” with Toni Locy
Toni Locy, professor of journalism and mass communications at Washington and Lee University, will address the press and the possibility of balance in the Age of Obama.
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Friday, March 18, 2016: 61st Institute of Media Ethics Keynote • “Ethics: From The Times to Twitter” with Vivian Schiller
Media executive Vivian Schiller will deliver the keynote address at Washington and Lee University’s 61st Institute of Media Ethics. Schiller will speak on “Ethics: From The Times to Twitter.” Her talk is free and open to the public. The institute is funded by the Knight Program in Journalism Ethics and is co-sponsored by W&L’s Department of Journalism and Mass Communications. As executive editor in residence at Weber Shandwick, Schiller works with Weber Shandwick and its clients to broaden thinking on media change and to inspire brands to innovate the way they engage audiences in the digital era.
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Thursday, March 17, 2016: Dale Jamieson, “How to Live in the Anthropocene”
Dale Jamieson, professor of environmental studies and philosophy at New York University (N.Y.U.), will lecture at Washington and Lee University on March 17 at 5 p.m. in the Hillel House, room 101. He will speak on “How to Live in the Anthropocene (Human Dominated Planet).” The talk is free and open to the public. This lecture is sponsored by W&L’s Department of Philosophy and the Root Lecture Fund.
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Sunday, March 13, 2016: Shakespeare 2016! / Phi Beta Kappa / Society of the Cincinnati Convocation with Ayanna Thompson
Prof. Ayanna Thompson, Professor of English at George Washington University, will be the 2016 Phi Beta Kappa Convocation Speaker. Prof. Thompson, who is a Trustee of the Shakespeare Association of America, specializes in issues of race and performance in Renaissance drama. Prof. Thompson’s speech will be followed by Phi Beta Kappa initiation.
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Friday, March 11, 2016: AdLib 2016 • Amy Bohutinsky ’97, COO of Zillow Group
Amy Bohutinsky is chief operating officer of Zillow Group, a portfolio of some of the largest real estate and home-related brands on Web and mobile, including consumer brands Zillow, Trulia, StreetEasy and HotPads. As chief operating officer, Bohutinsky oversees Zillow Group’s people organization (HR, recruiting and learning & development), as well as marketing, communications and consumer care. Bohutinksy joined Zillow in 2005, as one of the company’s earliest employees, and built the company’s marketing and communications functions from the ground up. Prior to becoming COO, she served as Zillow Group’s chief marketing officer, leading brand strategy, growth and marketing for the company’s flagship Zillow brand.
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Friday, March 11, 2016: AdLib 2016 • Campaign Talks
Case study presentations from professionals in the advertising, marketing, and digital industries. Presentations begin with John Zamoiski ’74 (Chief Opportunity Officer at AdLarge Media), followed by Marty St. George (EVP, Commercial and Planning at JetBlue), Dave Williams ’93 (Founder, BLiNQ Media and 360i), and Rich Weinstein ’91 (SVP/Group Account Director at The Martin Agency).
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Friday, February 12 and Saturday, February 13, 2016: The 26th Washington and Lee University Mock Convention • Republican Party 2016
- Friday, Session 1 featuring Kristen Solis Anderson, Grover Norquist, and Gov. Bob Ehrlich | Archived Event
- Friday, Session 2 featuring Rep. Bob Goodlatte, Rich Lowry, Anne Coulter and Dick Cheney | Archived Event
- Saturday, Session 3 featuring Garland Tucker III, Lila Rose, Ed Gillespie, Steve Moore and Newt Gingrich | Archived Event
- Saturday, Session 4 featuring Gov. Matt Bevin | Archived Event
Thursday, February 11, 2016: Mock Convention/Mudd Center Debate, “The Ethics of Citizenship”
The Mudd Center hosted a debate on “The Ethics of Citizenship” to kick off Mock Convention weekend. William Galston, The Ezra K. Zilhkha Chair in Governance Studies at The Brookings Institution will debate Peter Wehner, Senior Fellow at The Ethics and Public Policy Center on a variety of issues relating to “the ethics of citizenship.” The debate is moderated by Mudd Center director Angela Smith.
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Wednesday, February 10, 2016: Winter 2016 Global Fellows Seminar with Nico Prucha
Nico Prucha is a Violent Online Political Extremism (VOX-Pol) Research Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at the Department for War Studies, King’s College London. His current project is titled “Viral Aspects of Jihadism: The Lingual and Ideological Basis of Online Propaganda and the Spill Over to Non-Arabic Networks.” The lecture is titled “The Islamic State and the War for Hegemony in the Middle East.”
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Wednesday, January 27, 2016: Winter 2016 Global Fellows Seminar with Caroline Osella
Caroline Osella, a reader in anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, will lecture at Washington and Lee University as part of the Winter 2016 Global Fellows Seminar: Tradition and Change in the Middle East and South Asia. The seminar is supported by the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation. Osella will speak on “A Space of Possibilities: How Gulf Migration Impacts South Indian Muslim Family Life and Gendered Relationships.”
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Tuesday, January 19, 2016: Founders Day/ODK Convocation 2016 with author and American historian Joseph Ellis
American historian and author Joseph Ellis will be the featured speaker at Washington and Lee’s Founders Day/Omicron Delta Kappa Convocation on Tuesday, Jan. 19, at 5 p.m. in Lee Chapel. Ellis will speak on “What’s the Fuss About the Founders?” Afterward, he will sign copies of his latest book, on the museum level of Lee Chapel, from 6:15 to 6:45 p.m. The talk is free and open to the public. Ellis’ address will precede the induction of 27 undergraduates, 11 law students and five honorary initiates into Omicron Delta Kappa, the national leadership honor society for college students, faculty, staff and administrators, founded in 1914 at Washington and Lee. The University Singers will perform.
View the video: Archived Event (Joseph Ellis’ speech was not archived.)
Sunday, January 17, 2016: MLK Legacy Week Keynote with Dr. Michael Eric Dyson
Michael Eric Dyson, University Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University, will highlight a series of lectures, panel discussions and a viewing and discussion of “Selma” when Washington and Lee University holds its annual observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day Jan. 15-21. Dyson will present the keynote address, “Reviving the Revolutionary King,” on Jan. 17 at 6 p.m. in Lee Chapel. His speech and all other events in the multi-day program, Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., are free and open to the public.
View the video: Archived Event
Friday, January 15, 2016: “Just a Joke? The Social Consequences of Disparagement Humor,” with Prof. Julie Woodzicka
Julie Woodzicka, professor of psychology at Washington and Lee University, will give her inaugural lecture marking her appointment as the Abigail Grigsby Urquhart ’11 Term Professor on January 15, 2016, at 4:30 pm in Northen Auditorium, Leyburn Library. The lecture is titled: “Just a Joke? The Social Consequences of Disparagement Humor.” She will talk about prevalence of disparagement humor and the idea that it is harmless (or “just a joke”). She will discuss research delineating the effects of disparagement humor, most notably sexist humor. Woodzicka will also talk about recent research on confronting sexist and racist humor, and the mismatch between how people imagine they will respond to disparaging humor and how they actually do.
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2015
Tuesday, December 15, 2015: Memorial Service for President Robert Huntley
Robert Edward Royall Huntley, president of Washington and Lee University from 1968 to 1983, died on Dec. 10, 2015, in Lexington. He was 86. Huntley held two degrees from W&L, a B.A. (1950) and an L.L.B. (1957). He also served the university as the dean of its Law School from 1967 to 1968; as a professor of law from 1958 to 1968; and as the secretary of the Board of Trustees and legal advisor to the university from 1966 to 1968.
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Thursday, December 10, 2015: Candlelight Service, Lessons and Carols
An annual tradition at W&L for over 80 years, the Candlelight Service featuring the University Singers weaves together the sacred narration of the Christmas story through music, prayers, lessons, and hymns. The telling of the Incarnation in this manner binds countries and cultures, dating back hundreds of years. From traditional favorites such as René Clausen’s Sweet Was the Song to modern masterpieces like Brent Pierce’s How Still He Rests, featuring Joy Putney ’16 on the oboe, let text and music intertwine for an evening unlike any other in Lexington.
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Friday, November 13, 2015: 60th Media Ethics Keynote Address • “Ethics Amid the Ferguson Firestorm” with Gilbert Bailon
Gilbert Bailon, Editor of the St. Louis Post Dispatch will deliver the 60th Media Ethics Keynote Address. Bailon received the Benjamin C. Bradlee 2014 Editor of the Year Award from the National Press Foundation for the newspaper’s coverage of the police shooting in Ferguson, Mo. and the social unrest that followed. The St. Louis Post Dispatch won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography and was a Pulitzer finalist for editorial writing for its coverage related to Ferguson. This event is free and open to the public.
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Thursday, November 12, 2015: Shakespeare 2016! with James Shapiro, “Shakespeare in America”
James Shapiro, the Larry Miller Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, will give the Shannon-Clark Lecture at Washington and Lee University on Nov. 12 at 8 p.m. in Northen Auditorium, Leyburn Library. His appearance at W&L is sponsored by the English Department and Shakespeare 2016! Shapiro will speak on “Shakespeare in America.” His talk is free and open to the public.
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Friday, November 6, 2015: Mudd Ethics of Immigration Conference Keynote with Joseph Carens
Joseph Carens, professor of political science at the University of Toronto, will lecture at Washington and Lee University on Nov. 6 at 4:30 p.m. in the Stackhouse Theater, Elrod Commons. Carens’ talk, “Immigration and Citizenship,” will be the keynote address of the Ethics of Immigration Conference on Nov. 7. His lecture and the conference are free and open to the public.
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Tuesday, November 3, 2015: “Scalawags and Big Government: How Racial History Warps Politics,” by Author Taylor Branch
American author and public speaker Taylor Branch will give a talk at Washington and Lee University on Nov. 3, at 5 p.m. in Lee Chapel. Branch will speak about “Scalawags and Big Government: How Racial History Warps Politics.” It is free and open to the public. Branch’s talk is sponsored by the William Lyne Wilson II Symposium Fund and the Mellon Grant on History in the Public Sphere.
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Monday, October 26, 2015: Shakespeare 2016! with Ben Crystal, “The Once and Future Shakespeare”
Ben Crystal, British actor and producer, will give the opening lecture as part of Washington and Lee University’s Shakespeare 2016! on Oct. 26 at 5:30 p.m. in Lee Chapel. His talk is free and open to the public. He also is the artistic director of London-based Passion in Practice and its Shakespeare Ensemble, which he founded in 2010. Passion in Practice explores fresh approaches to acting Shakespeare. Crystal’s talk is titled “The Once and Future Shakespeare.” His visit is hosted by W&L’s Department of Theater, Dance and Film. In his words, he will discuss “why our current approach to Shakespeare’s works may need to change, how we can learn from the practices of the past to see our way forward, and the dramatic effect these lessons may have on the existing canon.”
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Monday, October 12, 2015: Remembering Robert E. Lee with Jonathan Horn
Lee Chapel and Museum presents “Remembering Robert E. Lee” with a speech by author and former White House presidential speech writer Jonathan Horn on Oct. 12 at 12:15 p.m. in the Lee Chapel Auditorium. Horn will speak about “Lee at Washington College: The Link and the Legacy.” The public is invited at no charge.
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Tuesday, October 6, 2015: The State of the University with President Ken Ruscio ’76
President Ken Ruscio ’76 presents a special, online edition of the State of the University.
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Saturday, September 26, 2015: Entrepreneurship Summit Keynote by Stephen Denny ’83
The J. Lawrence Connolly Center for Entrepreneurship at Washington and Lee University announced that the keynote address for its fourth annual Entrepreneurship Summit will be given by Stephen Denny, marketing consultant and the author of “Killing Giants: 10 Strategies to Topple the Goliath In Your Industry.” Denny graduated from W&L in 1983 with a degree in East Asian studies and went on to earn an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. He spent 20 years working in marketing for technology companies such as Sony, Onstar, Iomega and Plantronics. As a consultant, Denny helps emerging brands define their competitive positioning, communication strategies and implementation plans in the market.
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Thursday, September 17, 2015: Questioning Passion Inaugural Lecture / Root Lecture with Barbara Fredrickson
Barbara Fredrickson, the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) and director of the Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology Lab (PEPLab) at UNC, will give the inaugural lecture in the Questioning Passion interdisciplinary seminar series at Washington and Lee University. This series will run through the 2015-2016 academic year. The title of Fredrickson’s lecture, which is free and open to the public, is “On Passions, Positivity and Love.” Her talk is also sponsored by the Root Lecture Fund which was established by Robert W. Root (W&L ’42) in 1991 to support guest speakers selected by the Departments of Philosophy, Psychology and Religion. Fredrickson is best known for her broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, which suggests that positive emotions lead to novel, expansive or exploratory behavior, and that, over time, these actions build knowledge, social relationships and physical health. Her scientific contributions have influenced scholars, readers and the business community worldwide, in disciplines ranging from finance to healthcare. Fredrickson’s latest book, “Love.2,” provides a new way of thinking about love in addition to romantic or passionate love but also focusing more on momentary interactions and ordinary, everyday experiences that generate love.
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Wednesday, September 9, 2015: Fall Convocation 2015
This year’s convocation speaker will be Brian Murchison, the Charles S. Rowe Professor of Law at the Washington and Lee University School of Law. Murchison will speak on “The Liberal Arts in Practice.”
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Monday, July 13, 2015: “Approaching Shakespeare’s Kings: Understanding Shakespeare’s Stage” with Associate Provost Marc Conner
In Marc Conner’s lecture, titled “Approaching Shakespeare’s Kings,” Marc will talk about how the rise of Shakespeare’s theater and the reign of his monarchs Elizabeth and James influenced one another and indeed how monarchy and drama are inseparable for Shakespeare. He’ll talk about the conventions of the Shakespearean stage and how they allowed Shakespeare to engage his audience in the most fundamental political beliefs of the day. Finally Marc will delve into his historical tragedy Richard II to see how Shakespeare gives life to the concept of kingship in his plays.
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Monday, July 6, 2015: “Mediterranean Civilizations: In Broad Strokes” with Professor Kevin Crotty
In his talk, Kevin Crotty will explore some of the reasons why historians have begun to look at the Mediterranean Sea as a persisting historical unit in its own right, which underlay and helped shape the tumultuous events of ancient history. He will offer a brief overview of the somewhat unwieldy amount of time involved (some two millennia’s worth of history), and will look at a specific anecdote from late Antiquity rich in significance for the week’s themes.
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Monday, June 29, 2015: “Shaping Russian History Prior to Gorbachev” with Professor Richard Bidlack
Richard Bidlack’s talk describes several major themes that have shaped Russia over the many centuries since the start of its recorded history. These ideas and patterns of development acted as catalysts in the collapse of the Soviet Union and have also influenced profoundly Russia’s resurgence up to the present day.
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Thursday, June 25, 2015: “Rodgers and Hammerstein: An Overview of the Musicals” with Professor Tim Gaylard
An introductory look at the collaboration of composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, considering the traits of their greatest works, which contributed to the development of the American musical.
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Thursday, May 28, 2015: Undergraduate Commencement 2015
The 228th undergraduate commencement was held on Thursday, May 28, 2015, at 10:00 a.m. on the Front Lawn of the main campus.
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Wednesday, May 20, 2015: The Strangest Fruit Radio Hour with Ollin
Ollin is an LA-based world-folk-punk-fusion band. Members Randy Rodarte, Scott Rodarte, Gil DeSoto, Angel Juarez, Vincent Valdez, and Alexander Marchand will perform live in conjunction with Vincent Valdez’s The Strangest Fruit exhibition on view in the Staniar Gallery April 27 – May 29. In this series of paintings, entitled The Strangest Fruit, Valdez links historical treatment of Latinos to present day discrimination. “The Strangest Fruit Radio Hour” is hosted by Ollin, and they will perform live original songs, along with some spoken word pieces and projected images. The event is a collaboration between Staniar Gallery and the Mudd Center for their year-long program Race and Justice in America.
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Saturday, May 9, 2015: Law Commencement 2015
The 160th commencement ceremony for the Washington and Lee University School of Law will be held on Saturday, May 9, 2015, at 11:00 a.m. on the Front Lawn of the main campus.
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Thursday, April 30, 2015: Reunion 2015 Opening Assembly and Spring ODK Initiation with Bill Hartog
The annual alumni weekend opening assembly will include spring initiation for Omicron Delta Kappa. Bill Hartog, VP for Admissions and Financial Aid, will deliver the keynote address, “A Sense of Where We Are.”
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Saturday, March 21, 2015: Institute for Honor 2015 • “Robert E. Lee: Honor in Defeat” with Gary Gallagher
Gary W. Gallagher is the John L. Nau III Professor in the History of the American Civil War at the University of Virginia. He is the author or editor of more than thirty books, including The Confederate War (Harvard, 1997), Lee and His Generals in War and Memory (LSU, 1998), Causes Won, Lost, and Forgotten: How Hollywood and Popular Art Shape What We Know About the Civil War (UNC, 2008), The Union War (Harvard, 2011), and Becoming Confederates: Paths to a New National Loyalty (Georgia, 2013). He serves as editor of two book series at the University of North Carolina Press (“Civil War America,” with more than 100 titles date, and “Military Campaigns of the Civil War,” with 10 titles) and has participated in more than forty television projects in the field. Professor Gallagher was the Times-Mirror Foundation Distinguished Fellow at the Henry E. Huntington Library in San Marino, California, in 2001-2002, recipient of the Cavaliers’ Distinguished Teaching Professorship for 2010-2012 (the highest teaching award conveyed by the University of Virginia), and the Philip Merrill Award for Outstanding Contributions to Liberal Arts Education from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni in 2013. Active in the field of historic preservation, he was president from 1987 to mid-1994 of the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites (an organization with a membership of more than 12,500 representing all 50 states). He also served as a member of the Board of the Civil War Trust and has given testimony about preservation before Congressional committees on several occasions.
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Saturday, March 21, 2015: Institute for Honor 2015 • “Lincoln and Grant: Achieving the Peace” with H.W. Brands
Henry William Brands was born in Oregon, went to college in California, sold cutlery across the American West and earned graduate degrees in mathematics and history in Oregon and Texas. ~ He taught at Vanderbilt University and Texas A&M University before joining the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, where he holds the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History. He teaches history and writing to graduate students and undergraduates. ~ He writes on American history and politics, with books including The Man Who Saved the Union, Traitor to His Class, Andrew Jackson, The Age of Gold, The First American and TR. Several of his books have been bestsellers; two, Traitor to His Class and The First American, were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. ~ He lectures frequently on historical and current events and can be seen and heard on national and international television and radio. His writings have been translated into Spanish, French, German, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Ukrainian.
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Friday, March 20, 2015: Institute for Honor 2015 • “Lincoln and the Founders: Slavery, War, the New Birth of Freedom” with Richard Brookhiser
Richard Brookhiser is the author most recently of Founders’ Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln (Basic Books, 2014), and of eight books on revolutionary America: Founding Father, Rediscovering George Washington; Rules of Civility—the 110 Precepts That Guided Our First President in War and Peace; Alexander Hamilton, American; America’s First Dynasty: The Adamses 1735-1918; Gentleman Revolutionary: Gouverneur Morris, the Rake Who Wrote the Constitution; What Would the Founders Do? Our Questions, Their Answers; George Washington on Leadership, and James Madison. He is author and host of two films by Michael Pack: Rediscovering George Washington (PBS, 2002) and Rediscovering Alexander Hamilton (PBS, 2011). He was the historian curator of “Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America,” a 2004 exhibition at the New-York Historical Society. In 2008 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal. Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review.
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Thursday, March 19, 2015: Phi Beta Kappa/Society of the Cincinnati Convocation with Katy Simpson Smith
Katy Simpson Smith is the author of the acclaimed 2014 novel, The Story of Land and Sea. She received a Ph.D. in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an M.F.A. from the Bennington Writing Seminars. She is an adjunct professor at Tulane University and has published a study of early American motherhood, We Have Raised All of You: Motherhood in the South, 1750–1835.
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Friday, March 13, 2015: Science, Society and the Arts (SSA) Keynote with Dr. Rachel Herz, Ph.D.
Dr. Rachel Herz, Ph.D. is a neuroscientist and leading world expert on the psychological science of smell. She has been conducting research on the sense of smell, emotion, perception, motivated behavior and cognition since 1990. Dr. Herz has published over 70 original research papers, received numerous awards and grants, co-authored several college textbooks, and is an adjunct professor at Brown University and part-time faculty at Boston College. She is also a professional consultant to various industries regarding smell, taste, food and flavor, and is frequently called upon as an expert witness in legal cases involving olfaction.
Dr. Herz is the author of The Scent of Desire: Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell which was selected as a finalist for the “2009 AAAS Prize for Excellence in Science Books,” and That’s Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion, which received numerous accolades and analyzes the emotion of disgust from culture to neuroscience. Rachel Herz is currently working on a new popular science book exploring our psychology and passion for food.
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Tuesday, March 10, 2015: Leland Miller ’98, “Demystifying China’s Economy in 2015”
Leland Miller ’98, the Williams School Executive-in-Residence, will deliver his keynote address titled, “Demystifying China’s Economy in 2015.” Investors and policymakers obsess over the growth of China’s economy, but what is actually happening across regions and sectors remains a mystery to those who rely solely on official government data. Combining the largest private data operation ever to operate in a closed economy with unrivaled connections to sources on the ground, Leland will demystify the evolving Chinese marketplace and provide unique insight into China’s true growth, credit, and labor dynamics — as well as what Beijing leadership has in store in terms of restructuring and reform in 2015.
Leland R. Miller is President of China Beige Book International and leads the strategic management of the firm. A leading expert on China’s financial system, he is a frequent guest on media outlets such as CNBC, CNBC Asia, Bloomberg TV and Radio, BBC, Monocle 24, FOX News and FOX Business, al Jazeera, and China’s CCTV, among others, and his work is featured regularly in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, TIME, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Forbes, Foreign Policy, South China Morning Post, and The Washington Post.
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Monday, March 2, 2015: John Lucian Smith, Jr. Term Professorship Lecture with Deborah Miranda
On Monday, March 2nd 2015, Deborah Miranda will give The John Lucian Smith Jr. Term Professor Lecture in Northen Auditorium at 8:00 p.m. The speech is titled, “In a Constant State of Transition”: Mapping the Borderlands Between Scholarship and Poetry.
I am a mestiza. Half Indian, half white. Half poet, half academic. Split between the East and West Coasts of the North American continent, I have spent most of my life negotiating the complexity of in-betweenness, a place where the work of my scholarship often clashes with the work of my heart’s passion. Research demands facts, precision, efficiency, respect for deadlines, while poetry demands a suspension of time, ambiguity, messiness, irreverence for rules. As Chicana scholar and poet Gloria Anzaldúa writes, the borderlands are “not a comfortable territory to live in, this place of contradictions … A borderland is a vague and undetermined place … it is in a constant state of transition.” Is it possible to create a true mestiza work out of these two beloved but very separate cultures? To conceive and give birth to a mixed, hybrid, generative and balanced creativity? What would this kind of research look like? What would this kind of poetry look like? Is it possible to create this new kind of space in the in-between, and how would one keep one’s balance on constantly shifting ground? Anzaldúa warns that, “To survive the Borderlands/ you must live sin fronteras/ be a crossroads.” This talk is a map of surviving that encounter, that clash, and all its glorious consequences – in a body, a life, and a career.
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Friday, February 13, 2015: ADLIB Conference 2015 • Afternoon Keynote with Courtney Berry ’05
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Friday, February 13, 2015: ADLIB Conference 2015 • Romancing the Brand with Tim Halloran ’91
Tim Halloran has built and directed some of the world’s largest brands. He is has provided guidance to top companies including Coca-Cola, Home Depot, Kraft Foods, Procter & Gamble, Delta Airlines, glacéau (vitaminwater and smartwater), Georgia Pacific, the NBA, and Turner Broadcasting System. Prior to consulting, Tim spent ten years at Coca-Cola, leading multiple beverage brands. His successes at Coke include the national launch of Powerade sports drink and its sponsorship of the Olympics, co-development of Dasani bottled water, and the development of Coke’s first Internet marketing initiative with his work on Cherry Coke. He was awarded Innovator of the Year by Coca-Cola and named Max Award Finalist for Innovation by Georgia State University. Tim has also served as an adjunct faculty member of marketing at Emory University and Georgia Tech. His first book, Romancing the Brand: How Brands Create Strong, Intimate Relationships with Consumers was published by Jossey-Bass/Wiley in 2014, named by Forbes as one of “7 Actionable Books for Smart Entrepreneurs,” named 2014 Best Book – Marketing by strategy + business, and won the 2014 International book award in the marketing/advertising category.
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Friday, February 13, 2015: ADLIB Conference 2015 • Tips from Former Smokers – PSA Advertising with Jeff Boal ’84
Jeff Boal Founded Plowshare Group, Inc. in 1994. Mr. Boal has a wealth of advertising and public service advertising experience garnered from 21 years in the industry. He is intimately knowledgeable about social issue communications, PSA media marketing and media distribution opportunities and has spent virtually his entire career working with the federal government and nonprofit organizations on their marketing programs. He established PlowShare’s Creative Services Department, Media Distribution Services Department and Media Outreach Department.
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Wednesday, February 4, 2015: The Elmes, John, and Winfrey Term Professorship Lecture by Karla Murdock
Karla Murdock presents the Elmes, John, and Winfrey Term Professorship Lecture on February 4th at 4:30 pm in Northen Auditorium. The title of the talk is “Cellphones in our lives: Psychosocial Implications of the New Appendage.”
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Monday, January 19, 2015: Founders’ Day / ODK Convocation
James C. Cobb, award-winning author, historian of the American South and University of Georgia professor will be the featured speaker at Washington and Lee University’s Founders Day-Omicron Delta Kappa Convocation on Jan. 19, 5 p.m., at Wilson Concert Hall in the Lenfest Center for the Arts. Cobb will speak on the topic, “Would the Past Be Better Off Dead?” a reference to a famous line from the works of Southern author William Faulkner suggesting how bruised and battered the South’s troublesome past has become from constant skirmishing about its content, meaning and how it should be represented today. The address will precede the induction of 23 undergraduates, nine law students and four honorary initiates into membership in Omicron Delta Kappa, the national leadership honor society for college students, faculty, staff and administrators founded in 1914 at Washington and Lee. The University Singers will perform.
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2014
Thursday, December 11, 2014: Candlelight Service – Lessons and Carols
An annual tradition at W&L, the Candlelight Service featuring the University Singers weaves together the sacred narration of the Christmas story through music, prayers, lessons, and hymns. The telling of the Incarnation in this manner binds countries and cultures, dating back hundreds of years. Traditional favorites like Michael Praetorius’ Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming and Paul J. Christiansen’s Winds Through the Olive Trees and modern masterpieces like Brent Pierce’s How Still He Rests featuring Joy Putney ’16 on the oboe, and Stanford Scriven’s Christ the Appletree let text and music intertwine for an evening unlike any other.
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Tuesday, November 18, 2014: West Wing Reports’ Paul Brandus, Williams School Executive-in-Residence
In partnership with the Department of Journalism, the Williams School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics will host West Wing Reports’ Paul Brandus as its fall 2014 Executive-in-Residence. Brandus is an independent member of the White House Press Corps and founded West Wing Reports in 2009. The Knight Foundation’s Digital Media Center calls him “one of the most influential journalists in the White House press corps” and The Atlantic says Brandus is “one of the top Washington insiders you should follow on Twitter.” In 2011, he received the Shorty Award for “Best Journalist on Twitter.” West Wing Reports is followed on Twitter by more than 200,000 people and delivers national news bytes throughout the day—all in 140 characters or less. In addition, Brandus provides reports on the president’s domestic and foreign policy agenda to television and radio outlets around the United States and overseas, and is a columnist for MarketWatch, The Guardian, and The Week. Brandus will deliver a keynote address, “News, Business and Politics: How they’re changing, changing each other, and changing us,” on Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. in Hillel House.
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Wednesday, October 29, 2014: Beth Macy, “Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local–and Helped Save an American Town”
Beth Macy, author of “Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring,Stayed Local – and Helped Save an American Town”, will speak. “Factory Man” traces the aftereffects of globalization in small communities throughout America. Macy tells the success story of John Bassett III (W&L Class of 1959), who used grit and sheer will to compete against China and keep his Galax, Virginia, factory going when almost every other wood-furniture maker in America closed up shop and imported cheaper imports instead. Roanoke.com reported that Tom Hanks, the Academy Award-winning actor, and his production company, Playtone, will produce a miniseries based on “Factory Man.” Co-sponsored by the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications and Friends of the Library.
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Monday, October 27, 2014: Andrei Illarionov, Former Economic Adviser to Vladimir Putin
Andrei Illarionov, Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Liberty and the Prosperity at the Cato Institute gave a lecture entitled “Russian-Ukrainian War” in Northen Auditorium on the campus of Washington and Lee University. This event was sponsored by the Russian Area Studies Program, University Lectures Fund, and special thanks to the Pusey Fund. Andrei Illarionov was appointed economic and policy adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2000 and resigned his position in 2005, after conflicting with President Putin over the economic direction of the country. Illarionov has coauthored several economic programs for Russian governments and has written three books and more than 300 articles on Russian economic and social policies.
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Monday, October 13, 2014: Remembering Robert E. Lee with Noted Historian, Professor and Author Dr. Christian B. Keller
Lee Chapel and Museum presents “Remembering Robert E. Lee” with a speech by noted historian, professor and author Dr. Christian B. Keller. The public is invited at no charge. The title of Keller’s talk is “Robert E. Lee, Great Captain: The Military Education of a Future Civilian Leader.” There will be a book signing of Keller’s book, Chancellorsville and the Germans: Nativism, Ethnicity, and Civil War Memory at 10:30 a.m. in the Lee Chapel Museum Shop. The book will be available for purchase at that time. Along with many scholarly articles focusing on the ethnic experience in the Civil War, Keller is co-author of “Damn Dutch: Pennsylvania Germans at Gettysburg” (Stackpole, 2004). He is currently working on a study of Confederate strategy in 1862-1863 and a military history of Pennsylvania (Westholme Publishing, forthcoming). Keller is professor of history in the Department of National Security and Strategy at the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pa.
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Friday, October 10, 2014: Family Weekend Choral Concert
Come kick off the choral season at W&L with the University Singers, Men’s Glee Club, and Cantatrici. The concert will begin with the Men’s Glee Club, including a performance of Mack Wilberg’s heartrending arrangement of “The Dying Soldier” transitioning into James Stevens’ triumphant modern men’s arrangement of “Nearer My God To Thee.” Cantatrici will follow with Greg Jaspere’s delightful “VoiceDance,” and then the Glee Club will join them for Sarah Hopkins’ haunting “Past Life Melodies,” a work complete with aboriginal chanting and harmonic overtone singing paired with lighting throughout the hall, and “Praise His Holy Name” by renowned gospel composer Keith Hampton. The University Singers will then take the stage, performing the powerful “Kyrie” from Ugis Praulins’ “Missa Rigensis” and Pawel Lukaszewski’s lovely “Crucem Tuam Adoramus, Domine.” The centerpiece of the program will be the University Singers’ performance of Latvian composer Eriks Esenvalds’ “Northern Lights,” sung in the round with hand chimes, tuned wined goblets, and lighting telling the story of the warring of the aurora borealis. Also featured will be masterpieces by Dan Forrest, F. Melius Christiansen, and others to round out the evening, finally closing with the W&L tradition, “Shenandoah.”
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Wednesday, October 1, 2014: “My Brother’s Keeper: Incarceration and African American Men” by Charles Ogletree
Charles Ogletree, the Harvard Law School Jesse Climenko Professor of Law and Founding and Executive Director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, will give a talk on “My Brother’s Keeper: Incarceration and African American Men,” on Oct. 1, 2014 in Lee Chapel.
Professor Ogletree is a prominent legal theorist who has made an international reputation by taking a hard look at complex issues of law and by working to secure the rights guaranteed by the Constitution for everyone equally under the law. Professor Ogletree opened the offices of The Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice in September 2005, as a tribute to the legendary civil rights lawyer and mentor and teacher of such great civil rights lawyers as Thurgood Marshall and Oliver Hill. The Institute has engaged in a wide range of important educational, legal, and policy issues over the past 6 years.
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Wednesday, September 10, 2014: “Higher Education’s Contributions to Democracy” by President Ken Ruscio
President Ken Ruscio delivers the Fall Convocation address, “Higher Education’s Contributions to Democracy,” and kicks off a new academic year.
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Thursday, August 28, 2014: Managing Your Student Loan Debt and Focusing on What Matters with Heather Jarvis
Law students and graduates have important decisions to make about managing their finances. This comprehensive workshop covers it all: • Developing a financial plan that works • Strategies for reducing your overall costs • Evaluating when to pay down debt and when to save • Credit reports, credit scores, and credit qualification • Retirement savings and investments • Tax issues you need to know.
Heather Jarvis is widely known for her depth of knowledge and accessible teaching style. She has provided student loan education and consultation for universities, associations and professional advisors since 2005. Heather graduated cum laude from Duke University School of Law in 1998 and dedicates her professional efforts advocating on behalf of high-debt student loan borrowers. Heather contributes to student debt relief policy for the House Education Committee and others in Congress and has accepted appointment to the American Bar Association Task Force on Financing Legal Education. This session will be of interest both to current students as well as recent graduates adapting to life in the “real world” and working to manage their loans as well as the financial obligations that come with their increasingly complicated professional lives.
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Monday, July 14, 2014: “The Road to War: 1914-1917” with Professor Barry Machado
A presentation by W&L Professor Barry Machado. Barry was born in Fall River, Massachusetts in 1944 and is currently living in retirement in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College as well as an M.A. and Ph.D. in U.S. diplomatic history from Northwestern University, where he also taught for a year. His dissertation was directed by Richard W. Leopold. For 34 years, 1971-2005, he taught recent U.S. history, U.S. foreign and military affairs, and the history of American business in the history department at Washington and Lee University. He has served as a consultant and director of research for the Lilly Endowment Program as well as the Marshall Undergraduate Scholarship Program of the George C. Marshall Research Library. From 2003-2005 he was a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of The Journal of Military History to which he also contributed book reviews. Throughout his career he was a member of the Organization of American Historians (OAH) and the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR). He has delivered papers and chaired panels at various professional meetings and conferences on the subjects of the Cold War and American Business Abroad. His most recent publications and professional activities include: “The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis,” The Journal of Military History, 67:1 (January 2003), 295-97; “History, Memory and Holes in the Wall,” in Malcolm Muir and Mark Wilkinson, eds., The Most Dangerous Years: The Cold War, 1953-1975 (2005); and In Search of a Usable Past: The Marshall Plan and Postwar Reconstruction Today (2007).
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Monday, July 7, 2014: “Charles Dickens and the 19th-century British Novel” with Professor Marc Conner
A presentation by W&L Professor Marc Conner. Marc is the Jo M. and James M. Ballangee Professor of English and the Associate Provost at Washington and Lee. He took degrees in English and Philosophy at the University of Washington (Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude), followed by the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English at Princeton University, and has taught at Princeton and at the University of Notre Dame. His books include The Aesthetics of Toni Morrison: Speaking the Unspeakable (2000), Charles Johnson: The Novelist as Philosopher (2007), both published by the University Press of Mississippi, and The Poetry of James Joyce Reconsidered (2012) from Florida, as well as a 24-lecture course for The Great Courses titled How to Read and Understand Shakespeare (2013). In addition, Marc has published dozens of essays and book reviews on American and Irish Modernism. Marc directs a spring term study abroad program to Ireland, which he has run six times since 2000. He is the co-founder of the Program in African-American Studies, and in 2009 received the Anece McCloud Excellence in Diversity Award. His teaching interests include American, African-American, and Irish literature, Shakespeare, literature and philosophy, and the Bible as English literature, and his scholarly interests deal with the intersections of literature, philosophy, and religion. In 2004 Marc received the Ring-Tum Phi Award for teaching excellence at Washington and Lee.
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Thursday, July 3, 2014: “Leonardo da Vinci: A Restless Life” with Professor George Bent
A presentation by W&L Professor George Bent. George is the Sidney Gause Childress Professor in the Arts and Head of the Department of Art and Art History at Washington and Lee University. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Oberlin College in 1985 and his Ph.D. in Art History from Stanford University in 1993. He came to Washington and Lee University in that year and has been a member of the faculty ever since. Professor Bent teaches courses in Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque art history, and specializes in Italian art and culture from 1250 to 1450. He has written about artistic production, the function of liturgical images, and institutional patronage in early Renaissance Florence and in 2006 published Monastic Art in Lorenzo Monaco’s Florence, a book that focuses on these subjects. He co-founded Washington and Lee’s interdisciplinary program in Medieval and Renaissance Studies, chaired it (and the Art Department) from 2000 to 2003, and served as Associate Dean of the College from 2003-2006. A two-time holder of Fulbright grants to Italy, he has recently completed a series of lectures on Leonardo da Vinci for The Great Courses Company.
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Monday, June 30, 2014: “George Gershwin: The Man and the Music” with Professor Timothy Gaylard
A presentation by W&L Professor Timothy Gaylard. Gaylard is Professor of Music at Washington and Lee, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1984. He was also Chair from 2000 until 2008, and again in 2012-2013. A native of Ottawa, Tim received his B. A. and B. Mus. degrees from Carleton University in Canada, and has associateship diplomas from the Royal Conservatory of Music. He studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, and obtained his M. A. and Ph. D. in musicology from Columbia University. He has performed extensively as a pianist in both Canada and the United States.
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Thursday, May 22, 2014: Undergraduate Commencement 2014
The 227th undergraduate commencement will be held on Thursday, May 22, 2014, at 10:00 a.m. on the Front Lawn of the main campus. The Baccalaureate Service will be held the day before, on Wednesday, May 21, 2014, at 10:00 a.m., also on the Front Lawn.
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Saturday, May 10, 2014: Law Commencement 2014
The 159th commencement ceremony for the Washington and Lee University School of Law was held on Saturday, May 10, 2014, at 11:00 a.m. on the Front Lawn of the main campus.
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Friday, May 9, 2014: Historical Myths About Science with John L. Heilbron
Two dozen historians of science from around the world debunked 26 commonly-held myths of science at a conference at Washington and Lee University May 8 – 11. The keynote address by John L. Heilbron of the University of California-Berkeley took place in Lee Chapel at 6 p.m. on Fri. May 9 and was open to the public. He discusses the master myths of science, history and science and science and religion. According to Heilbron, these master myths, though almost certainly false, contain enough truth to be useful and inspirational. The argument covers a few familiar doubtful stories, such as Columbus and the flat earth, Galileo’s tower and torture, Newton’s apple, the big bang theory and ends with a surprising appeal to Greek mythology.
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Thursday, May 1, 2014: Reunion 2014 Opening Assembly
The annual alumni weekend opening assembly includes spring initiation for Omicron Delta Kappa. Suzanne Keen, dean of the College, delivers the keynote address, “Lost in a Book: Immersion Reading and Liberal Education.”
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Wednesday, April 23, 2014: Accepted Students Day 2014
Accepted Students Day kicks off with an introduction by Mr. William M. Hartog, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, followed by welcoming remarks by President Ken Ruscio.
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Saturday, March 29, 2014: Institute for Honor Symposium Closing Lecture, “George Washington and Abraham Lincoln: Honor and the American Presidency,” by Class of 1960 Professor Lucas Morel
The inaugural lecture by the new Class of 1960 Professor, Lucas Morel, Professor of Ethics and Politics at W&L, is the closing lecture of the Institute for Honor Symposium’s Saturday session. This year’s symposium is titled “George Washington: Leadership with Honor.” Morel’s talk concludes the program’s examination of how Washington’s leadership was informed by his understanding of honor’s role in establishing and perpetuating self-government. In “George Washington and Abraham Lincoln: Honor and the American Presidency,” Morel addresses how honor shaped Washington’s role as founder and Lincoln’s role as preserver of the American republic.
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Saturday, March 29, 2014: Institute for Honor Symposium, “Rightly to Be Great: Ideas of Honor and Virtue among the American Founders” by Craig Bruce Smith
Craig Bruce Smith, instructor of American history at Brandeis University, speaks on George Washington and the history of honor. His dissertation is entitled “Rightly to Be Great: Ideas of Honor and Virtue among the American Founders.”
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Friday, March 28, 2014: Institute for Honor Symposium Keynote Address, “George Washington and the Ethics of Leadership” by David Hackett Fischer
David Hackett Fischer, the University Professor and Earl Warren Professor of History at Brandeis University, delivers the keynote address at the Institute for Honor Symposium “George Washington: Leadership With Honor” at Washington and Lee University on Friday, March 28, in Lee Chapel. The title of Fischer’s talk is “George Washington and the Ethics of Leadership.”
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Tuesday, March 25, 2014: Robert E. Lee in War and Peace with Dr. Donald Hopkins
Dr. Don Hopkins discusses his book which is a photographic biography of Lee. Dr. Hopkins’ book contains all 61 photographs taken of Lee during his lifetime. He also discusses various photographic methods of the period. The event is sponsored by Lee Chapel, the Friends of Preston Library, and the Friends of Leyburn Library.
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Thursday, March 13, 2014: Phi Beta Kappa/Society of the Cincinnati Convocation with Lucinda Roy
The Phi Beta Kappa chapter at Washington and Lee University inducted new members into the prestigious academic honor society at the Phi Beta Kappa/Society of the Cincinnati Convocation on Thursday, March 13, at 11:45 a.m. in Lee Chapel. The convocation recognizes and honors 49 members of the junior and senior classes and eight graduates from the Class of 2013, all of whom were accepted into Phi Beta Kappa based on their exceptional academic achievements. The event features Lucinda Roy, Alumni Distinguished Professor in Creative Writing at Virginia Tech, who gives the keynote talk, “Lifelong Learning as a Fountain of Youth: A Writer-Teacher’s Curious, Cross-Cultural Journey toward Creativity.” Roy, who is a poet and a novelist, teaches poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction at Virginia Tech.
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Thursday, March 6, 2014: CONTACT presents Jane Goodall
Washington and Lee’s Contact Committee will present Jane Goodall, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace, who will speak on Thursday, March 6, at 7:30 p.m. in Lee Chapel. The title of Goodall’s talk is “Sowing the Seeds of Hope.” The event is co-sponsored by SEAL, the Tri-Beta Honor Society and the Johnson Leadership Series.
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Friday, February 28, 2014: 57th Institute on Ethics in Journalism Keynote with John Hazard
John Hazard, director of client services at Contently, gave the keynote address of the 57th Institute in Ethics in Journalism at Washington and Lee University on Friday, Feb. 28, 2014. Hazard delivers the address on behalf of technology writer Shane Snow, co-founder of Contently, who is unable to attend the event due to illness. The title of Hazard’s talk is “What Happens to Ethics When the Advertisers Write the Stories?”
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Thursday, February 27, 2014: Contemplative Practices in Higher Education
Meditation and mindfulness in the classroom? Integrating yoga into the curriculum? Contemplative neuroscience offering unity and coherence to the sciences, humanities and social sciences? A new era for higher education in America? Open Mic discussion with Daniel Barbezat of Amherst College and ACMHE (Association of Contemplative Mind in Higher Education) and David Germano of UVA’s Contemplative Sciences Center. Moderated by W&L students, panelists include student and faculty from Religion, Economics, English, Business Administration, a cross section of disciplines at W&L.
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Wednesday, February 12, 2014: “‘Little Note nor Long Remember’: Why Do We Remember the Gettysburg Address?” with Lincoln scholar Allen C. Guelzo
Allen C. Guelzo, one of the nation’s most distinguished scholars of Abraham Lincoln, delivers the keynote address for Washington and Lee University’s observance of the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation on Wednesday, Feb. 12, at 6 p.m. in Lee Chapel. The title of Guelzo’s talk is ” ‘Little Note nor Long Remember’: Why Do We Remember the Gettysburg Address?”
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Friday, January 31, 2014: False Confessions Symposium
This symposium will examine the story of the Central Park Five, the Norfolk Four, and other cases involving false confessions. Speakers include Steve Drizin, a leading researcher in the field; Steve Northup, lawyer from Troutman Sanders who represented Erick Wilson of the Norfolk Four; Gerry Zirken, a Federal Public Defender who represented Earl Washington; Steve Rosenfeld, who represents another Norfolk Four defendant, and interrogation expert James Trainum. Sponsored by Washington and Lee University Law School, the Frances Lewis Law Center, and these Washington and Lee organizations: The Innocence Project, CONTACT, the Student Bar Association, the Black Law Students Association, the Federalist Society, the Criminal Justice Clinic, the National Lawyers Guild, and The Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice.
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Sunday, January 26, 2014: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday Celebration Keynote Speaker Donna Brazile
Donna Brazile, the veteran political strategist, delivers the keynote speech of Washington and Lee University’s celebration of the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. on Sunday, Jan. 26, at 5:30 p.m. in Lee Chapel on the W&L campus. Donna Brazile worked on every presidential campaign from 1976 through 2000, when she became the first African-American to manage a presidential campaign. She is the former interim national chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) as well as the former chair of the DNC’s Voting Rights Institute. She founded and is the managing director of Brazile & Associates L.L.C., a general consulting, grassroots advocacy and training firm based in Washington.
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Monday, January 20, 2014: Founders’ Day / ODK Convocation with Professor Lucas Morel
Lucas Morel, the Class of 1960 Professor of Ethics, presents the Founders’ Day/ODK Convocation Address: “Ever Mindful of the Past: Building an Honorable Community.”
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Thursday, January 16, 2014: Journalist/Author Robert D. Kaplan, “The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate”
Robert D. Kaplan, chief geopolitical analyst for Stratfor, a private global intelligence firm, delivers his talk, “The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate.” This is also the title of his latest book, published by Random House in 2012. Kaplan has been a foreign correspondent for The Atlantic for over 25 years. In both 2011 and 2012, Foreign Policy magazine named Kaplan among the world’s 100 Top Global Thinkers.
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2013
Thursday, December 5, 2013: Candlelight Service: Lessons and Carols featuring the University Singers
Join us on Dec. 5 at 8 p.m. in Lee Chapel for an annual tradition at W&L, the Candlelight Service featuring the University Singers weaves together the sacred narration of the Christmas story through music, prayers, lessons, and hymns. The telling of the Incarnation in this manner binds countries and cultures, dating back hundreds of years. From traditional favorites like Tomás Luis de Victoria’s “O Magnum Mysterium” and Robert Shaw’s “Hacia Belén” to modern masterpieces like Brent Pierce’s “How Still He Rests” and Dan Forrest’s “Entreat Me Not to Leave You,” let text and music intertwine for an evening unlike any other.
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Friday, November 8, 2013: 56th Institute on Ethics in Journalism Keynote with Dean Baquet
Dean Baquet, managing editor of The New York Times, delivers the Keynote Address for the 56th Institute on Ethics in Journalism with a speech titled, “Why the Big News Organizations and Their Anonymous Sources Matter.” The Ethics Institute keynote is sponsored by the W&L Knight Program in Journalism Ethics and the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications.
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Thursday, October 31, 2013: Mudd Center for Ethics Inaugural Lecture with Michael Ignatieff
Renowned author, academic and former politician Michael Ignatieff presents the inaugural lecture for Washington and Lee University’s Mudd Center for Ethics. The lecture, titled “American Democracy, Human Rights, and the Use of Force,” was filmed in Lee Chapel at 4:30 p.m. to a packed crowd.
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Monday, October 14, 2013: Remembering Robert E. Lee with Civil War Historial Frank A. O’Reilly
Lee Chapel and Museum presents Remembering Robert E. Lee with a speech by noted author and Civil War historian Frank A. O’Reilly on Monday, Oct. 14, at 12:15 p.m. in the Lee Chapel Auditorium. The public is invited at no charge. The title of O’Reilly’s talk is “Adapt, Improvise, and Overcome: Robert E. Lee’s Greatest Victory at Chancellorsville.” O’Reilly will talk about the battle of Chancellorsville from Lee’s point of view as it is usually presented from Stonewall Jackson’s point of view.
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Wednesday, October 9, 2013: The State of the University 2013
President Ken Ruscio ’76 presents the State of the University.
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Friday, September 6, 2013: The Promise and the Peril of Globalization
Professor of Economics Michael Anderson delivers a talk on “The Promise and the Peril of Globalization” during 5-Star Festival.
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Thursday, September 5, 2013: Fall Convocation with Alston Parker Watt ’89
We are fortunate to have former trustee Alston Parker Watt as this year’s speaker. Alston graduated from W&L in 1989 and in 1996 received a Masters in Health Science from the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. Alston is the Executive Director and a Trustee of the Williams Family Foundation of Georgia, a family foundation that supports programs focused on children, preservation and conservation with a geographic focus in southwest Georgia. While at W&L Alston was a member of the Student Executive Committee and was a two-sport letter winner at W&L in both swimming & diving and lacrosse. Alston is the first undergraduate woman to serve on the Washington and Lee Board of Trustees (2003-2011).
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Tuesday, July 23: 2013: “George C. Marshall: The Education of a General” with Marshall biographer Mark Stoler
A presentation by Marshall biographer Mark Stoler. Mark A. Stoler earned his B.A. at the City College of New York (1966) and his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1971). He joined the University of Vermont faculty in 1970 and became Professor Emeritus in 2007. Stoler’s areas of special expertise are U.S. diplomatic and military history and World War II. Included among his many publications are “Allies and Adversaries: the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Grand Alliance, and U.S. Strategy in World War II” (2000), “The Politics of the Second Front: American Military Planning and Diplomacy in Coalition Warfare, 1941-1943” (1977), “George C. Marshall: Soldier-Statesman of the American Century” (1989), and “Allies in War: Britain and America against the Axis Powers, 1940-1945” (2005). He also co-authored “Explorations in American History” (1987) with Marshall True, “Major Problems in the History of World War II” (2003) with Melanie Gustafson, and “Debating Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Foreign Policies” (2005) with Justus Doenecke. Stoler’s scholarship earned him the University Scholar Award at UVM (1993) and the Distinguished Book Award of the Society for Military History (2002); his distinguished teaching earned him the Dean’s Lecture Award (1992), the George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award (1984), and the Kroepsch-Maurice Excellence in Teaching Award (2006). Stoler has served as a visiting professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the U.S. Naval War College, the University of Haifa in Israel, the U.S. Military History Institute, Williams College, and Washington & Lee University. He has also produced an audio/DVD course for The Teaching Company. He is former president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (2004) and a former trustee of the Society for Military History. Currently, he is serving as editor of volumes 6 and 7 of “The Papers of George Catlett Marshall” and completing a book on the World War II Combined Chiefs of Staff.
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Tuesday, July 16: 2013: “The Lion Rampant: Americans, Frenchmen, And All Sorts of Indians” with W&L Emeritus Professor Lamar Cecil
Lamar Cecil is the former William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of History at W&L, specializing in European History. He is the author of numerous books and articles and has delivered many papers relating to the history and politics of Germany. He also has a strong interest in British monarchical history and has spent much time working in the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle. Lamar is a veteran teacher of W&L’s Alumni Colleges on campus and abroad, lecturing on a variety of topics from 19th century Europe to the relationship between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. in the post-Cold War world.
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Tuesday, July 9: 2013: “The Symphonies (The Music of Mozart)” with W&L Professor Tim Gaylard
Timothy Gaylard is Professor of Music at Washington and Lee, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1984 and is interim Chairman of the Music Department for 2012-13. He was also Chair from 2000 until 2008, and again in 2012-2013. A native of Ottawa, Tim received his B. A. and B. Mus. degrees from Carleton University in Canada, and has associateship diplomas from the Royal Conservatory of Music. He studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, and obtained his M. A. and Ph. D. in musicology from Columbia University. Tim has taught in numerous Alumni Colleges and is going on his ninth program abroad in August. On that trip to the Mediterranean, he will accompany Scott and Amy Williamson. He has performed extensively as a pianist in both Canada and the United States. His research interests include Mozart’s influence on Beethoven, British piano music from 1800 to 1920 and, most recently, the piano music of Liszt.
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Friday, July 5: 2013: “Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address” with W&L Professor Lucas Morel
The Class of 1960 Ethics Professor and head of the Politics Department, Lucas arrived at W&L in July 1999 from Siloam Springs, Arkansas, where he had taught from 1994 to 1999 at John Brown University and the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville. He received his education at Claremont McKenna College and the Claremont Graduate School. His teaching and research interests are American government, political theory, Abraham Lincoln, and black American politics. He also serves as a pre-law advisor for the undergraduate university at large. Lucas is president of the Abraham Lincoln Institute, trustee of the Supreme Court Historical Society, and board member of the Abraham Lincoln Association. In the 2008-09 academic year, he was the Garwood Visiting Research Fellow at the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He also teaches in the Summer Masters Program in American History and Government at Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio, where he also serves on the board of advisors. He has written for the Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, First Things, and Richmond Times-Dispatch, and is currently writing a book entitled “Lincoln, Race, and the Fragile American Republic.”
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Tuesday, July 2: 2013: “The Loss of Jackson and the Battle of Gettysburg” with Civil War historian James E. (Bud) Robertson
“Bud” is a longtime friend of the W&L family and has spoken often at alumni colleges. He is Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Virginia Tech, where he taught Civil War history to an estimated 22,000 students over a 44-year period. Bud obtained his B.A. degree from Randolph-Macon College and his graduate degrees from Emory University. His 1997 biography of “Stonewall” Jackson was the base for the Warner Bros. mega-movie, “Gods and Generals.” His most recent work, “The Untold Civil War” was published by National Geographic Society. In May of this year, Bud received The Virginius Dabney Award, the highest recognition that the Museum of the Confederacy bestows for excellence in historical contributions.
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Thursday, May 23, 2013: Undergraduate Commencement
The 226th undergraduate commencement will be held on Thursday, May 23, 2013, at 10:00 a.m. on the Front Lawn of the main campus. The Baccalaureate Service will be held on Wednesday, May 22, 2013, at 10:00 a.m., also on the Front Lawn.
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Wednesday, May 14, 2013: Aerial Dance
In a dazzling display of aerial artistry, the award-winning W&L Repertory Dance Company will swoop, spin and flip along the walls of Wilson Hall, May 15&16 @ 5:30pm in Lexington, Va. This playful look at dance features works choreographed and performed by students using aerial rope & harness. Broadway rigging company ZFX will see to the safety of the dancers and the seamless cable transitions. This concert happens only once every four years and builds on a legacy established in 2009 by incorporating music, props and new daring technique and artistry. W&L is at the foreground of the national discussion on aerial dance education. Artistic Director and Dance Professor Jenefer Davies has published and lectured internationally on her specially designed technique classes that prepare dancers for the rigors of aerial work.
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Saturday, May 11, 2013: Law Commencement
The 158th commencement ceremony for the Washington and Lee University School of Law will be held on the Front Lawn in front of Lee Chapel on Saturday, May 11, 2013, at 11:00 a.m.
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Wednesday, April 24, 2013: Accepted Students Day
Accepted Students Day kicks off with an introduction by Mr. William M. Hartog, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, followed by welcoming remarks by President Ken Ruscio. The Student Life Presentation follows afterward. We encourage all students who were not able to join us on campus to tune in!
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Monday, April 22, 2013: Cheech Marin
Cheech Marin, the entertainer who is well known for his work in movies and television, has been acquiring art for more than 20 years, and he has amassed one of the most renowned collections of Chicano/a art in private hands. Staniar Gallery will feature a selection of small paintings from his collection in the exhibition “Chicanitas” which will be on view April 22 through May 24. Marin will be talking about his collection in a public lecture being held in conjunction with the exhibition. The talk will be held in Wilson Hall’s Concert Hall at 5:30pm on Monday, April 22. Since the 1960s, artistic expression has been an important agent of political activism for the Mexican-American community; its members marginalized by both law and custom in the United States. As Chicano/a artists garnered public attention and respect, their works have moved from the peripheries of the art world to more traditional museum and gallery spaces while continuing to embrace themes of heritage, legacy and community.
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Saturday, March 16, 2013: President John D. Wilson Memorial Service
John Delane Wilson, the president who led Washington and Lee University during its transition to coeducation, died on Saturday, March 2, in Lexington. He was 81. The Washington and Lee community will come together to remember President Wilson in Lee Chapel.
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Thursday, March 14, 2013: Phi Beta Kappa / Society of the Cincinnati Convocation
The convocation recognizes new initiates into the W&L chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. The convocation speaker is Elizabeth R. Varon, the Langbourne M. Williams Professor of American History at the University of Virginia, talking about “Writing Virginia History: A Journey in the Liberal Arts.”
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Friday, March 8, 2013: Dr. Richard Alley, SSA 5 Keynote Luncheon Talk
Studies the history of Earth’s climate to aid in the prediction of future changes in climate and sea level. He participated in the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which was co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Dr. Alley is the host of the PBS miniseries Earth: The Operators’ Manual, which presents an assessment of the Earth’s problems and possible solution.
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Thursday, February 21, 2013: A Conversation with Bob Goodlatte
Washington and Lee Law School Dean Nora Demleitner leads an Q&A session with Congressman Bob Goodlatte ’77L, recently appointed to head the influential House Judiciary Committee.
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2012
Friday, January 18, 2012: Founders Day/ODK Convocation
Andrew Delbanco, the Mendelson Family Chair of American Studies and Julian Clarence Levi Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, will speak at Washington and Lee University’s Founders’ Day / ODK Convocation. The title of Delbanco’s talk, which is free and open to the public, is “What is College For?”
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Thursday, December 6, 2012: Candlelight Service. A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.
With music by the University Singers. Conducted by Dr. Shane M. Lynch with Timothy R. Gaylard, organist.
An annual tradition at W&L, the Candlelight Service weaves together the sacred narration of the Christmas story through music, prayers, lessons, and hymns. The telling of the Incarnation in this manner binds countries and cultures, dating back hundreds of years. From traditional favorites like Kenneth Jennings’ Thy Little Ones, Dear Lord to modern masterpieces like Morten Lauridsen’s O Magnum Mysterium, let text and music intertwine for an evening unlike any other.
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Friday, October 19, 2012: NY Times’ David Carr Addresses 54th Institute on Ethics in Journalism
David Carr, the New York Times media and culture columnist, delivers the Keynote Address for the 54th Institute on Ethics in Journalism.
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Tuesday, October 16, 2012: A Conversation with the Dean
Prof. Brian Murchison interviews Dean Nora Demleitner for Equal Time, his radio show on WLUR. The interview was simulcast on WLUR and via LiveStream. Prof. Murchison also takes questions from the audience in the Millhiser Moot Court Room.
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Thursday, September 20, 2012: The State of the University 2013
President Ken Ruscio ’76 presents the State of the University, as well as responds to an alumni-submitted question.
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Wednesday, September 5, 2012: Fall Convocation
Arthur H. Goldsmith, the Jackson T. Stephens Professor of Economics, addresses the annual Fall Convocation. The title of his speech is “Finding Your Path to a Life Well Lived.”
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