Hall Center for the Humanities announces 2023-24 Speaker Series
LAWRENCE – The Hall Center for the Humanities’ Speaker Series at the University of Kansas features humanities scholars and creative writers with ideas that shape the world and illuminate the intersections of human experience.
“These speakers bring us new worlds of thought and experience,” said Giselle Anatol, interim director of the Hall Center. “Their ideas make our minds more expansive; they invite us to go farther, dig deeper. That’s something wonderful to be a part of.”
Tracey Lien, a KU alumna who grew up in Australia, began the series Oct. 5 with a talk about her award-winning debut novel, a mystery set in a Sydney suburb home to Vietnamese immigrant families. The presentation is available via Crowdcast.
Speaker Series events are free and open to the public. For further information about these events and other Hall Center programming, subscribe to Hall Center social media channels and visit its website.
Upcoming speakers
A.E. Stallings
“This Afterlife: Selected Poems”
7 p.m. Oct. 11
Hall Center Conference Hall (and online via Crowdcast)
A.E. Stallings, elected this year to one of poetry’s most prominent posts, the Oxford Professor of Poetry, will recite from her collection and discuss her work as a poet and translator.
Meet KU’s Authors: Geoff Harkness
“DVS Mindz: The Twenty-Year Saga of the Greatest Rap Group to Almost Make It Outta Kansas”
6:30 p.m. Nov. 2
Lawrence Public Library
KU alumnus Geoff Harkness will discuss the rise and dissolution of Topeka rap group DVS Mindz. This talk is part of Meet KU’s Authors, an ongoing partnership with Lawrence Public Library, providing audiences an opportunity to hear researchers associated with KU discuss their work.
Susan Wolf
“Meaning in Life and Why It Matters”
7 p.m. Nov. 9
Hall Center Conference Hall (and online via Crowdcast)
Philosophy professor Susan Wolf will discuss how meaning is derived from acting out of love for what we love.
Nicole Fleetwood
“Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration”
7 p.m. Dec. 6
Lied Center Pavilion (and online via Crowdcast)
Nicole Fleetwood’s presentation will elaborate on the visual culture of U.S. prisons and how those in a carceral state assert their humanity in the face of a system that dehumanizes them.
Lewis Gordon
“From Kitchens and Pubs to the World: Philosophy for Humanity Today and Beyond”
7 p.m. Feb. 22, 2024
Hall Center Conference Hall (and online via Crowdcast)
Gordon will address the importance of everyday philosophy and how, as we face challenges to humanity in the 21st century, we live lives committed to equality, justice and freedom.
Humanities Book Club: Ada Ferrer
“Cuba: An American History”
4 p.m. Feb. 29, 2024
Hall Center Conference Hall
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Ada Ferrer will explore the history of Cuba and its deeply intertwined relations with the United States in conversation with an interdisciplinary panel of KU faculty.
KU Common Book Speaker: N.K. Jemisin
7 p.m. April 25
Kansas Union, Woodruff Auditorium (and online via Crowdcast)
Science fiction author N.K. Jemisin, three-time Hugo Award winner, will discuss her work and the significance of KU’s 2023-24 Common Book, Octavia E. Butler’s “Parable of the Sower.” In addition to the Hall Center, the Common Book is sponsored by the Spencer Museum of Art, History of Black Writing, KU Common Book Program, Department of English and Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction.
Founded in 1947, the Humanities Speaker Series is the oldest continuing program of its kind at KU. Previous speakers have included authors Jesmyn Ward and Neil Gaiman, actor and author Alan Alda, poets Natalie Diaz and Terrance Hayes and sociologist Matthew Desmond.
Photo: Author and KU alumna Tracey Lien gave a talk at the Hall Center for the Humanities on Oct. 5. Credit: Dan Oetting