Jefferson Lecture Honorees
Honorees have been persons of international stature in the humanities, whose addresses have involved the central concerns of the humanities—human needs, experiences, goals and values—and how these concerns relate to life in the present.
Columba Stewart, 2019
“Cultural Heritage Present & Future”
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Rita Charon, 2018
“To See the Suffering”
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Martha Nussbaum, 2017
“Powerlessness & The Politics of Blame”
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Ken Burns, 2016
“Race in America” (subject; no title announced)
Bio >
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Martin Scorsese, 2013
“Persistence of Vision: Reading
The Language of Cinema”
Bio >
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Wendell Berry, 2012
“It All Turns On Affection”
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Drew Gilpin Faust, 2011
“Telling War Stories: Reflections
Of a Civil War Historian”
Bio >
Lecture Text (scroll to bottom of bio page)
Jonathan Spence, 2010
“When Minds Met: China & The West
in the Seventeenth Century”
Bio>
Lecture Text (scroll to bottom of bio page)
Leon Kass, 2009
“ ‘Looking for an Honest Man:’ Reflections
of An Unlicensed Humanist”
Bio >
Lecture Text (scroll to bottom of bio page)
John Updike, 2008
“The Clarity of Things: What Is American About American Art”
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Lecture Text (scroll to bottom of bio page)
Harvey Mansfield, 2007
“How to Understand Politics: What the Humanities Can Say to Science”
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Helen Vendler, 2004
“The Ocean, The Bird, & The Scholar”
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Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 2002
“Mr. Jefferson & The Trials of
Phillis Wheatley”
Bio >
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Arthur Miller, 2001
“On Politics & The Art of Acting”
Bio >
Lecture Text (scroll to bottom of bio page)
James M. McPherson, 2000
“ ‘For a Vast Future Also:’ Lincoln &
the Millennium”
Bio >
Lecture Text (scroll to bottom of bio page)
Edward Shils, 1979
“Render Unto Caesar: Government,
Society, & Universities in their Reciprocal Rights & Duties”
