KU News Release

Speakers for 2008-09 Humanities Lecture Series announced

LAWRENCE — The Hall Center for the Humanities at the University of Kansas has announced speakers for the 2008–09 Humanities Lecture Series.

Each lecture is free, open to the public and begins at 7:30 p.m. Several speakers will take part in a public colloquium on the morning following their evening lectures. The series is partially supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Susan Estrich, one of the nation’s leading legal scholars, is the Robert Kingsley Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of Southern California. Known for her quick wit and humor as a commentator on Fox News, Estrich was one of the first women to run a national presidential campaign, the first female president of the Harvard Law Review and the youngest woman to be tenured at Harvard Law School. A senior adviser to four presidential campaigns, Estrich is a regular contributor to the Washington Post and Newsweek. She will speak Sept. 23 at Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union.

Michael Chabon, celebrated author of “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh” and “Wonder Boys,” will speak Oct. 27 at the ballroom in the Kansas Union. In 2000, he published what the New York Review of Books called his magnum opus, “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.” The novel went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001. His novel “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union” was published in 2007 to enthusiastic reviews. Chabon studied at Carnegie-Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh and received a master’s degree in creative writing at the University of California-Irvine. He has lectured widely on topics including the art of writing, the tradition of Jewish fiction and Vladimir Nabokov. His lecture is supported by the Sosland Foundation of Kansas City.

Jeannette Walls is the award-winning author of the powerful memoir, “The Glass Castle.” The book details her life growing up in extreme poverty and describes the obstacles she faced in overcoming her past. From the desert Southwest to West Virginia, her account of an impoverished life is a powerful and moving first-person testament to what it means to be poor. Walls’ memoir has been a New York Times bestseller for more than 75 weeks, has sold more than 1.5 million copies, been translated into 16 languages and is currently being made into a movie by Paramount. Its numerous awards include the Christopher Award, the American Library Association’s Alex Award and the Books for Better Living Award. Walls will speak Nov. 18 at Woodruff Auditorium.

Anthony Corbeill, professor of classics at KU, will speak Feb. 5 at Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union. Corbeill has published two books, “Controlling Laughter: Political Humor in the Late Roman Republic” and “Nature Embodied: Gesture in Ancient Rome.” He also has published on ancient sexuality, education and Latin poetry. His current book-length project is titled “The Boundaries of Sex and Gender in Ancient Rome.” Corbeill received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and master’s and doctoral degrees in classical languages from the University of California-Berkeley. He has held the American Philological Association fellowship to the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae in Munich, Germany, a comprehensive dictionary of the Latin language (1990-91) and a postdoctoral fellowship at the American Academy in Rome (1994-95). This lecture is supported by the Friends of the Hall Center.

James McBride, who will speak Feb. 24 at Woodruff Auditorium, is an award-winning writer, composer and saxophonist. His landmark memoir, “The Color of Water,” was a New York Times bestseller for two years. The book is the moving account of his mother, a white Jewish woman from Poland who raised 12 black children in New York City and sent each to college. It has been translated into more than 17 languages. His second book, “Miracle at St. Anna,” the story of a black American soldier who befriends an Italian boy during World War II, is being made into a film by Spike Lee. A graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism, McBride has written for the Boston Globe, People and the Washington Post. This lecture is the Frances and Floyd Horowitz Lecture devoted to issues related to America’s multicultural society.

Dipesh Chakrabarty is the Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor in History, South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. A leading scholar of subaltern studies, his books include “Rethinking Working-Class History: Bengal 1890-1940” and “Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference.” Chakrabarty’s current work focuses on the development of history as a profession in South Asia in the first half of the 20th century and its relationship to public life. He has also been working on changing forms of mass-politics in the subcontinent. Chakrabarty is a founding member of the editorial collective of Subaltern Studies, a co-editor of Critical Inquiry and a founding editor of Postcolonial Studies. He will speak April 20 at Woodruff Auditorium.

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