Conson Wilson Lecture Series
Speakers are recognized authorities and scholars from a wide range of backgrounds who lecture to and meet with students and faculty. Notable past lecturers include news commentator William F. Buckley, U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, famed authors Alex Haley and Tom Wolfe, and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Jeanne Kirkpatrick.
Suggest a Speaker
If you would like to suggest a speaker for next year's Conson Wilson Lectures, please do so by filling out this form. All suggestions will be considered by the committee responsible for selecting next year's speakers. Please submit suggestions prior to November 15 of this academic year in order for your suggested speaker to be considered for the next academic year.2004-2005 Speakers
Click on the name of a speaker to find out more details about their lecture.Tim O'Brien: Rescheduled to Thursday, Sept. 23, 8:15 PM
Larry Sabato: Tuesday, Sept. 21, 7:30 PM
Elaine Pagels: Thursday, Nov. 11, 7:30 PM
Robert Sternberg: Thursday, Jan. 27, 7:30 PM
Susan Estrich: Thursday, Feb. 24, 7:30 PM
2004-2005 Schedule of Lectures
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Tim O'Brien
Rescheduled to Thursday, September 23
8:15 P.M.
Berry College Chapel - Tim O'Brien is the award-winning author of The Things They Carried, the book selection for the 2004 First-Year Experience Book Discussion at Berry. The book received France's Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger and was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Award.
O'Brien's Going After Cacciato received the National Book Award in fiction, and his In the Lake of the Woods received the James Fenimore Cooper Prize from the Society of American Historians and was named best novel of the year by Time magazine.
After graduating from Macalester College, O'Brien served as an infantryman with the U.S. Army in Vietnam. He went on to pursue graduate studies in government at Harvard. He is holds the Roy F. and Joann Cole Mitte Chair in Creative Writing at Texas State University.
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Larry Sabato
"Crystal Ball: Election 2004"
Tuesday, September 21
7:30 P.M.
Berry College Chapel - Dubbed by Fox News Channel as "America's favorite political scientist," Larry J. Sabato is founder and director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. There, he bridges the gap between the ivory tower and the real world on issues of critical importance to American democracy and the challenges facing our political process. It's no wonder he's been recognized as "probably the most quoted college professor in the land."
While not in the media spotlight, Sabato is the Robert Kent Gooch Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia. He received his bachelor's degree in government from the University of Virginia and a doctorate in politics from Queen's College, Oxford University.
Sabato is writing two books about the 2004 election - one to be published ahead of election day as a guide to voters and one analyzing the election results in early 2005. He also is regularly updating "Sabato's Crystal Ball," a critically acclaimed election-analysis Web site at www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball. He is also the author of more than 20 books and countless essays on the American political process.
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Elaine Pagels
"The Ancient Gospel of Thomas: A Different View of Christianity"
Thursday, November 11
7:30 P.M.
Berry College Chapel - An intensely inquisitive and thorough historian, Elaine Pagels is one of the country's leading scholars of religion. While still in her early thirties, she exploded the myth of the early Christian church as a unified movement and changed the historical landscape of one of the world's greatest religions in the process.
Pagels, who serves as the Harrington Spear Paine professor of religion at Princeton University, gained international acclaim for her best-selling book, The Gnostic Gospels, an anlysis of 52 ancient manuscripts unearthed in Egypt in 1945. The manuscripts, known collectively as the Nag Hammadi Library, include many gospels and other writings previously unknown and demonstrate that the early Christian movement was far more diverse than previously thought.
Pagels also wrote Adam, Eve and the Serpent, The Origin of Satan, and Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas.
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Robert Sternberg
"Leadership is a Decision"
Thursday, January 27
7:30 P.M.
Berry College Chapel - A world-renowned theorist in the area of psychology, Robert Sternberg is director of Yale University's Center for the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies and Expertise. He has written more than 1,000 journal articles, book chapters and books and has received more than $18 million in grants and contracts for his research. The central focus of his work is on intelligence, creativity, wisdom and leadership. He also has studied love, close relationships and hate.
In 2003, he served as president of the American Psychology Association and has served on the organization's board of directors.
Sternberg received his doctorate from Stanford University and a bachelor of arts in psychology from Yale University. He also holds five honorary doctorates, presented by universities in Spain, Belgium, Cyprus, France and Slovakia.
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Susan Estrich
"Why America Needs More Women on Top"
Thursday, February 24
7:30 P.M.
Berry College Chapel - A veteran of three presidential campaigns, Susan Estrich is currently a law professor at the University of Southern California. She is a contributing editor of The Los Angeles Times and a former columnist for USA Today. She also writes a nationally syndicated column that appears in some of America's largest newspapers.
As a professional, Estrich has paved the way for countless women to attain positions of leadership. She became the first woman to head a national presidential campaign and was the first woman president of the Harvard Law Review. She earned a bachelor's degree from Wellesley College and graduated from Harvard Law School.
She is the author of several books, including Getting Away with Murder: How Politics is Destroying the Criminal Justice System and the New York Times' bestseller Sex & Power.
Previous Years: 2003-04 | 2002-03