Course-wide Lectures
In 1999, the Core Curriculum inaugurated a new series of public lectures sponsored by the Dean of the College, for all students enrolled in the Core Curriculum. These events are meant to bring all the students and the faculty of a Core course together for a lecture in the Roone Arledge Auditorium of Lerner Hall—the kind of collective intellectual experience that is the hallmark of the Core Curriculum.
Course-wide Lecture, Spring 2011
Robert J. Richards, Morris Fishbein Professor of the History of Science, University of Chicago
Core Curriculum: Contemporary Civilization Course-Wide Lecture "Darwin's Moral Theory and Its Justification" Robert J. Richards, Morris Fishbein Professor of the History of Science, University of Chicago April 1, 2011
Course-wide Lecture, Fall 2010
Jeremy Waldron, University Professor at New York University School of Law
On Friday, November 12th, 2010, Jeremy Waldron, University Professor at New York University School of Law will give the Contemporary Civilization Course-Wide Lecture, entitled "The Mother Too Hath Her Title: John Locke on Motherhood and Equality. The lecture will take place in Roone Arledge Auditorium at 11:00AM. Attendance is free of charge and mandatory for all CC students.
Course-wide Lecture, Spring 2010
by Michele Moody-Adams, Dean of Columbia College, Columbia University
On Friday February 12 2010, Contemporary Civilization students and faculty were joined by members of the entire university community in Roone Arledge Auditorium where Dean Michele Moody-Adams delivered the Spring 2010 Contemporary Civilization course-wide lecture. Dean Moody-Adams's lecture addressed the challenging but essential relationship between the theories represented in CC texts and practice.
Course-wide Lecture, Spring 2010
Mark Lilla, Professor of Humanities, Columbia University
On April 23, 2010, Professor Mark Lilla delivered the Spring 2010 Literature Humanities Course-wide Lecture.
Intended to help students consider the broad themes of their first year in the Core Curriculum, in Literature Humanities, the lecture was entitled "The Soldier, The Sage, The Saint and The Citizen." This bridge lecture between Literature Humanities and Contemporary Civilization was the first of its kind and the idea of outgoing Literature Humanities Chair and Violin Professor of Classics Gareth Williams.
Course-wide Lecture, Fall 2009
Carolyn Dewald, Professor of Classical and Historical Studies; Director of Classical Studies Program, Bard College
Carolyn Dewald gave the Literature Humanities Course-wide Lecture on Friday November 20, 2009 in the Lerner Hall. Though geared at Lit Hum students and their faculty, the lecture was open to all.
Course-wide Lecture, Spring 2007
by Uday Mehta, the Clarence Francis Professor in the Social Sciences at Amherst College
On Wednesday April 11, 2007, Uday Mehta delivered the Spring 2007 Contemporary Civilization Course-wide Lecture in Lerner Hall at 6:00 PM, entitled “Freedom, Violence and the Ruling of Others.”.
Course-wide Lecture, Fall 2005
by Martha Nussbaum, Ernst Freund Distinguished Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago
On Friday, September 30 at 11 a.m. in Roone Arledge Auditorium in Lerner Hall, Professor Martha Nussbaum, of the University of Chicago delivered the Contemporary Civilization Course-wide Lecture, entitled “The Arbitrariness of Canons: The Neglect of Hellenistic Philosophy and Why It Is A Bad Thing.”
Course-wide Lecture, Spring 2005
by K. Anthony Appiah, the Laurance S. Rockefeller University of Philosophy at Princeton University
On Friday, April 8, 2005, in Roone Arledge Auditorium in Lerner Hall, K. Anthony Appiah, the Laurance S. Rockefeller University of Philosophy at Princeton University delivered the Contemporary Civilization Course-wide Lecture. Entitled “The Problem of the Twenty-First Century: Du Bois and Cosmopolitanism”, the lecture discussed W.E.B. Du Bois’s ideas about race as a prelude to thinking about cosmopolitanism.
Course-wide Lecture, Fall 2004
by Elaine Pagels, Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religon at Princeton University
Elaine Pagels, the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University, delivered the Contemporary Civilization Lecture in October, 2004. Professor Pagels' lecture was entitled "Which Jesus? The Newly Discovered Gospel of Thomas Challenges the Cannon."
Course-wide Lecture, Spring 2004
by Catharine MacKinnon, Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan
Catharine MacKinnon, Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, delivered the Contemporary Civilization Course-wide Lecture in April, 2004. Professor MacKinnon is a pioneer in feminist legal theory, specializing in sex equality issues under constitutional and international law. Professor MacKinnon's lecture was entitled "Women's World, Men's States."
Course-wide Lecture, Fall 2003
by Quentin Skinner, Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge
One of the world's leading historians, Professor Skinner addressed students on the "Three Concepts of Liberty." His major contributions have been to intellectual history, the history of political thought, and to political theory, and his interests have centered especially on the political philosophy of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and their relevance to contemporary political theory.
Course-wide Lecture, Spring 2003
by Lee C. Bollinger, President, Columbia University
President of Columbia University Lee Bollinger addressed students on "Democracy and the University" during the Spring 2003 Contemporary Civilization lecture. His teaching and scholarship focus on free speech and the first amendment, on which he has published widely.
Course-wide Lecture, Fall 1999
by Professor Alexander Nehamas Princeton University
Plato's Republic, I hope, is one of the most disturbing books you have ever read: a casual conversation about old age, through an immense series of small steps, to which, though most seem reasonable, we are never allowed to object (Glaucon and Adeimantus are always there ahead of us with their unending "Yes, of course, Socrates"), results in an obsessively detailed description of a social organization in which most people in this room, despite our qualifications, would have ended up either as laborers or soldiers through no obvious choice of our own...