Blake Gilpin
This year’s Henry R. Heyburn ’39 Speaker in History, Professor Blake Gilpin, used his expertise on the 1850s abolitionist John Brown to illustrate how the narratives of history are created: by combining fact, perspective, and sometimes imagination. Dr. Gilpin, a professor of history at Tulane University, has spent a decade studying John Brown and the cultural phenomena surrounding the man and his legend. His book John Brown Still Lives!: America’s Long Reckoning with Violence, Equality, and Change was a finalist for Gilder Lehrman Center’s Frederick Douglass Book Prize. Dr. Gilpin...
Read MoreAnand Giridharadas
Journalist Anand Giridharadas had an “almost American life” growing up. Born in Ohio, the son of Indian immigrants, he shared with students the story of what led him to live in India for six years. A New York Times columnist and the author of India Calling: An Intimate Portrait of a Nation’s Remaking, Mr. Giridharadas was this year’s Hong Kong Distinguished Lecturer. “The country I grew up with in my mind was giving way to a different India. It was a revolution from within . . . The changes had to do with people revolting against parents who told them they would be a doctor or a...
Read MoreDonald Johnson
Dr. Donald Johnson — English professor and poet in residence at East Tennessee State University — was last fall’s Bingham Visiting Reader. In honor of Veterans Day, Dr. Johnson began his reading with two poems about soldiers and war. The first, “The Sergeant,” was inspired by his father, a World War II veteran who later commanded a squad of the Honor Guard that traveled through West Virginia. The second poem he read, titled “Point Lookout, Maryland,” recalled the American Civil War. An avid sports fan and accomplished sportswriter, Dr. Johnson served for 16 years as...
Read MoreDebby Irving
Activist and author Debby Irving talked with students about what she explained as an epidemic of “white silence.” Ms. Irving, this year’s Multiculturalism and Community Development Speaker, said that when it comes to racism in the United States, white people must be part of “cross-racial conversations” in order to make progress on racial divisions and injustices. A graduate of the Winsor School in Boston, Ms. Irving holds a bachelor’s degree from Kenyon College and an M.B.A. from Simmons College. She is the author of Waking Up White. “We are all connected, but we are damaged,...
Read MoreJennifer Finney Boylan
What does it mean to be transgender? What is gender identity? This year’s Talbot Speaker, Professor Jennifer Finney Boylan, answered these questions for students and faculty, with charm, personal anecdotes, and compassionate advice. Professor Boylan is the inaugural Anna Quindlen Writer-in-Residence at Barnard College and the author of She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders. “The question is not how you go from being a man to a woman, or a woman to a man. The real question is: How do you live an authentic life? How do you be you, out in the world? That well-intentioned advice, ‘just...
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