Skidmore Lectures

'Beat Science: In Conversation with Makaya McCraven'
Thursday, Feb. 15
6 p.m.
Tang Teaching Museum

Join us for a conversation with drummer/composer Makaya McCraven, who The New York Times called, "one of the best arguments for jazz's vitality." McCraven will be in discussion with Angus McCullough, musician and instructor in the John B. Moore Documentary Studies Program (MDOCS) at Skidmore. For more information, please visit the Tang Teaching Museum website or contact Olivia Camisa-Frost.

The 2024 Karen L. Coburn '63 Endowed Lecture in Gender Studies: 'Intersectionality in Action: Feminist Design and Disability Culture'
Tuesday, Feb. 20
6:30 p.m. 
Zoom

Jen White-Johnson (she/they) is an Afro-Latina disabled/neurodivergent artist, disability cultural activist, and design educator whose visual work explores the intersection of content and caregiving, emphasizing redesigning ableist visual culture. Aimi Hamraie (they/them) is associate professor of medicine, health, & society and American studies at Vanderbilt University, and director of the Critical Design Lab. Join White-Johnson and Hamraie for a conversation on dismantling access barriers through feminist design, disability culture, and intersectionality. Conversation will be followed by a digital poster design making workshop for students interested in creating a digital tapestry that serves as a call to action for feminism and disability justice. Register online; for more information, contact Gwen D'Arcangelis.

Charles N. Dowd Lecture: 'Watch what you're doing: Lessons from deafferentation'
Wednesday, Feb. 21
6 p.m.
Somers Room, Tang Teaching Museum

Deafferentation involves the loss of sensory (afferent) input; meanwhile, embodied/enactive approaches to cognition argue for a close relation between perception and action. During this event, Lillian and Morrie Moss Chair of Excellence in Philosophy at the University of Memphis Shaun Gallagher speaks about new experiments on deafferentation and how they provide some significant insights about this relation. For more information, contact Larry Jorgensen or Jen Lewis.

The Ronald J. Fiscus Lecture in Constitutional Law
Thursday, Feb. 22
5 p.m.
Davis Auditorium, Palamountain Hall

Controversies over freedom of speech on college campuses have existed as long as there have been college campuses, but the specific issues vary with each generation. In this academic lecture, Dean of University of California at Berkeley School of Law and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law Erwin Chemerinsky will speak about this debate in its most current iteration: The tension between the desire to protect the learning experience of all students and the desire to safeguard freedom of expression. For more information, contact Flagg Taylor.

Judy Tsou '75 Music Scholar Series: 'South Side Impresarios: How Race Women Transformed Chicago's Classical Music Scene'
Thursday, Feb. 22
6 p.m.
Ladd Concert Hall, Zankel Music Center

Combining lecture and piano performance, Anniversary Research Fellow at the University of Southampton, musicologist, and pianist Dr. Samantha Ege brings the story of the South Side impresarios to life, as she delves into the ways that Chicago's early 20th-century Race women (i.e., Black women intellectuals and creatives committed to the entwined tasks of racial uplift and gendered progress) operated out of their South Side base and shaped a new vision for classical music that transformed the city and beyond. The event includes performance of Piano Sonata in E minor by Florence Price and will be live streamed for those who cannot attend in person. Contact Sarah Day-O'Connell or visit the Music Department's website for more information.

David H. Porter Classical World Lecture: 'Cicero with Local Applications: Pro Archia Poeta and W. E. B. Du Bois's "The Souls of Black Folk"'
Thursday, Feb. 29
5 p.m.
Emerson Auditorium, Palamountain Hall

Associate Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies, African Studies, and African American Studies at Penn State University Mathias Hanses will discuss W. E. B. Du Bois's use of the writings of Roman orator Cicero in his advocacy for granting Black students access to a college education. In his examination of ways in which the civil rights activism of Du Bois's drew on Cicero's oratory, Hanses will also consider the implications for the discipline of classics in the 21st century. For more information, contact Randolph Ford.  

9th Annual F. Willliam Harder Endowed Lecture in Business Administration
Wednesday, March 6
5:30 p.m.
Gannett Auditorium, Palamountain Hall

Join the Skidmore College community for the annual lecture presented by Skip Kodak, Regional President of the LEGO Group Americas. The F. William Harder Lecture invites industry leaders to explore the current business environment and the challenges that lie ahead. For more information, contact the Office of Stewardship and College Events.

Dunkerley Dialogue with Yvette Molina and Adam Tinkle
Thursday, March 21
7 p.m.
Tang Teaching Museum

Join us for a Dunkerley Dialogue with artist Yvette Molina, whose work is on view in the exhibition "Yvette Molina: A Promise to the Leaves," and Adam Tinkle, associate professor of media and film studies and director of the John B. Moore Documentary Studies Collaborative (MDOCS). For more information, please visit the Tang Teaching Museum website or contact Olivia Camisa-Frost.

Edwin M. Moseley Faculty Lecture: 'Smiling Pages: Visualizing Dante's Divine Comedy'
Monday, March 25
5:30 p.m.
Gannett Auditorium

Dante Alighieri's "The Divine Comedy" has been compared to a Gothic cathedral with its spectacular architectural design and graceful symmetries. In his lecture, Professor of Italian Giuseppe Faustini will endeavor to illustrate Dante's pictorial creativity that has had a significant impact on the visual and preforming arts. Dante's "Comedy" has truly become the privileged subject, a fountain of creativity, that has inspired innumerable artists. For more information, please contact Megan Bove.