Featured Speakers

College of Charleston student Levi Vonk (Class of 2013), who majored in international studies and was a recipient of the College's highest academic award, the Bishop Robert Smith Award, discusses how he got involved in helping migrant workers, most from Hispanic cultures, to learn English. Through his work volunteering and teaching in various migrant camps and programs in the Carolinas, he learned the importance of connecting with other cultures and saw firsthand the problems facing today's migrant workers in light of stricter immigration laws. Levi Vonk's talk was part of in!Genius, a College of Charleston event sharing the personal stories of artists, scientists, scholars and industry professionals -- all either CofC students, professors, staff or alumni. Check out more of the speakers of in!Genius at http://ingenius.cofc.edu

College of Charleston alumnus and CofC music professor Edward Hart '88 shares the inspiration behind one of his most recent compositions, "Under an Indigo Sky." In his talk, he describes his idyllic childhood in a growing Charleston of the seventies and how this beautiful setting shaped his music aesthetic and continues to serve as his muse today. Edward Hart's talk was part of in!Genius, a College of Charleston event sharing the personal stories of artists, scientists, scholars and industry professionals -- all either CofC students, professors, staff or alumni. Check out more of the speakers of in!Genius at http://ingenius.cofc.edu

Natasha Adair, head coach of the women's basketball program at the College of Charleston, shares a very personal story on how a shy, gangly girl transformed into a confident woman ready to take on any challenge in her way. Her story highlights the power of athletics to not only build confidence in one's self, but to mold and strengthen one's character in facing adversity, whether it be physical or emotional. Coach Adair's talk was part of in!Genius, a College of Charleston event sharing the personal stories of artists, scientists, scholars and industry professionals -- all either CofC students, professors, staff or alumni. Check out more of the speakers of in!Genius at http://ingenius.cofc.edu

Highlights of in!Genius, in!Genius, a College of Charleston event sharing the personal stories of artists, scientists, scholars and industry professionals -- all either CofC students, professors, staff or alumni. Check out more of the speakers of in!Genius at http://ingenius.cofc.edu.

College of Charleston student Alix Generous, a biology major, talks about her passion for science -- a passion that culminated in her presenting original undergraduate research regarding quorum sensing and coral reefs to more than 1,000 United Nations delegates in the fall 2012 in India. While her research is both compelling and groundbreaking, Generous' life with Asperger's and her insight into the power of that syndrome to fuel her scientific mind are perhaps the most inspiring and remarkable. Alix Generous' talk was part of in!Genius, a College of Charleston event sharing the personal stories of artists, scientists, scholars and industry professionals -- all either CofC students, professors, staff or alumni. Check out more of the speakers of in!Genius at http://ingenius.cofc.edu

Brian Rutenberg received his BFA from the College of Charleston in 1987 and his MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 1989. He currently lives and works in New York City. Rutenberg had his first solo exhibition with Forum Gallery in Los Angeles in 2000. Forum Gallery, New York became Rutenberg's primary representative. He has since hosted solo exhibitions at more than 50 galleries across the U.S. And participated in twice as many group exhibitions. He has received many major awards including a Fulbright Scholarship, a Fellowship in Painting from the New York Foundation for the Arts, a Basil Alkazzi Award USA, and a Ragdale Foundation Fellowship. He credits the College of Charleston with diversifying his talents and providing many different experiences.

College of Charleston alumnus Jimmy Freeman '11, one of CofC's first Call Me MISTER Program graduates (a program placing African American males in teaching roles across the state), shares five lessons for better understanding today's classroom, from the basic needs of children, to the concept of "control" in the classroom, to the importance of men in a school and their effect on a boy's success in education. Mr. Freeman is an elementary school teacher working in South Carolina's Lowcountry. Jimmy Freeman's talk was part of in!Genius, a College of Charleston event sharing the personal stories of artists, scientists, scholars and industry professionals -- all either CofC students, professors, staff or alumni. Check out more of the speakers of in!Genius at http://ingenius.cofc.edu

College of Charleston faculty members Naomi Gale (Schusterman professor of Israel studies) and Ghazi Abuhakema (professor of Arabic language and culture) talk about their groundbreaking coursework on the shared culture of the Middle East. In their presentation, they talk about their own childhoods (one growing up in the temporary Jewish camps in Iraq and the other in the refugee camps of Palestine) and focus on the many commonalities between the Jewish and Muslim cultures so long at odds. Their talk was part of in!Genius, a College of Charleston event sharing the personal stories of artists, scientists, scholars and industry professionals -- all either CofC students, professors, staff or alumni. Check out more of the speakers of in!Genius at http://ingenius.cofc.edu

Eating Animals is Foer’s first nonfiction book. He earned wide acclaim for his novels Everything is Illuminated (2002) and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005), which is the One Book Charleston County selection for 2012 (see below). Foer graduated from Princeton University in 1999 with a degree in philosophy and has written an opera and edited anthologies in addition to his novels. He has been an occasional vegetarian since age 10. He is currently a professor in the Graduate Creative Writing Program at New York University. His fourth novel, Escape from Children’s Hospital, is due for publication in 2014. Eating Animals employs philosophy, literature, science, countless interviews, and undercover investigations of factory farms to wrestle with the complexity of food choices, especially those that involve eating animals. Why do we eat animals? Would we eat them if we knew how they were treated? To what extent does that matter? Rather than telling you what to eat, Foer challenges you to know what you are eating and how it got on your fork and then to think carefully about the ethical, environmental, legal, and communal and decide how you feel about the choices you make.

The College of Charleston Friends of the Library hosted a lecture by Jon Meacham, presidential historian, contributing editor at Time and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, on Tuesday, October 30, 2012. Known as a skilled raconteur and an eloquent speaker with a depth of knowledge about history, politics and religion, Meacham is one of America's most prominent public intellectuals and understands how issues and events impact our lives. Meacham's appearance is part of the Friends of the Library Addlestone Authors' Series. Meacham's keynote address was entitled "The Media's Secret Bias: Liberals, Conservatives, and the Truth about the News." For some, the key to understanding the media is ideology -- that outlets are driven by politics rather than objectivity. There is much truth to this, and the 21st century is now more like the 18th and 19th in terms of partisan news. But there's an even more fundamental point Americans should grasp: that many journalists are driven as much by conflict as by creeds. Jon Meacham brings renewed perspective to the issue of media bias, grounded in historical analysis and his own life's work with print and television news media outlets. Meacham cuts to the core of media bias, explaining how politics and human nature shape the news you see and read. Mr. Meacham's New York Time bestseller, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 2009 and was cited as an "unlikely portrait of a not always admirable democrat, but a pivotal president, written with an agile prose that brings the Jackson saga to life. His biography, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, is scheduled for a November 13, 2012 release. He is also working on a biography of President George H.W. Bush. His other New York Times bestsellers include Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship, which explored the fascinating relationship between the two great leaders who piloted the free world to victory in World War II, and American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation. As executive vice president and executive editor at the Random House Publishing Group, Mr. Meacham currently is editing a book by Al Gore and a series of e-books published by Politico on the 2012 presidential campaign. Mr. Meacham is a regular guest on Morning Joe and has appeared on such programs as Charlie Rose, Meet The Press, The O'Reilly Factor and The Colbert Report. After serving as managing editor of Newsweek for eight years, Mr. Meacham was responsible for all day-to-day editorial operations of the magazine as editor from 2006 to 2010. The New York Times called him "one of the most influential editors in the news magazine business."

Linda A. Duessel, a nationally renowned equity market strategist, will speak at the College of Charleston's School of Business on September 6, 2012. The presentation will be held in the Wells Fargo Auditorium in the Beatty Center and is free and open to the public. Duessel is senior vice president of Federated Investors, Inc., one of the nation's largest investment managers, as well as senior equity market strategist, and senior client portfolio manager. She has regularly appeared on CNBC's "Closing Bell" and other programs. In addition, she has appeared on Fox News' "Your World With Neil Cavuto" and Bloomberg Television. She has also been quoted by Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal and Barron's, and has been featured in the annual roundtables for USA Today and Smart Money Magazine. Duessel's lecture, "Economic and Market Outlook: Dividends for the Short, Intermediate, and Long-Term," will examine economic trends that affect shareholder members from multiple perspectives. As senior equity market strategist, Duessel creates a framework for analyzing equity market conditions and the firm's positioning strategies. Duessel is also is responsible for presenting the strategy, process, positioning and performance of Federated's domestic and international equity portfolios. Duessel earned a master's of science degree from Carnegie Mellon University, and bachelor's degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and has 27 years of investment experience.

Ken Czubay, Vice President of United States marketing, sales and service for the Ford Automotive Corporation spoke at the College of Charleston on March 22. Czubay discussed the Ford turnaround, his vision for Ford's future and his experience working in different cultures. Czubay oversees the day-to-day sales and marketing of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles in the United States. He first worked for Ford in 1970 as a financial analyst with Ford Motor Credit Company and went on to hold several positions for Ford Division and Lincoln Mercury Divisions. Czubay's lecture, part of the school's George G. Spaulding Distinguished Executive Speaker Series, was free and open to the public.

The College of Charleston hosted one of the most prominent anti-racist writers and educators in the United States. Tim Wise presented "Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equality" on Monday, February 27, 2012 in Physicians Auditorium. This event was free and open to the public as part of the Office of Institutional Diversity Signature Speaker Series and Black History Month programming. Tim Wise has been called, "One of the most brilliant, articulate and courageous critics of white privilege in the nation," by best-selling author and Professor Michael Eric Dyson, of Georgetown University. Wise, who was named one of "25 Visionaries Who are Changing Your World," by Utne Reader in 2010, has spoken in 49 states, on over 800 college and high school campuses, and to community groups across the nation. He has also lectured internationally in Canada and Bermuda on issues of comparative racism, race and education, racism and religion, and racism in the labor market. Wise is the author of six books, including the highly acclaimed memoir, White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son. This program was made possible in part by a grant from the C.A. Dufford, Jr. Estate for the promotion of diversity at the College of Charleston.

The College of Charleston selected "The Known World" by Edward P. Jones as its 2011 The College Reads! book selection. Jones was on campus for a public reading week and book talk on November 1, 2011. He remained on campus on November 2 to engage with students, faculty and staff. Set in antebellum Virginia, 20 years before the Civil War began, Jones's debut novel examines issues regarding the ownership of black slaves by free black people as well as by whites. Caldonia Townsend is an educated black slaveowner, the widow of a well-loved young farmer named Henry, whose parents had bought their own freedom, and then freed their son, only to watch him buy himself a slave as soon as he had saved enough money. After his death, his slaves wonder if Caldonia will free them. When she fails to do so, but instead breaches the code that keeps them separate from her, a little piece of Manchester County begins to unravel. Published in 2003, The Known World won a National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer for Fiction in 2004. In 2005, it won the International IMPACT Dublin Literary Award. "The College Reads! Committee selected this book for a variety of reasons," said Provost George Hynd. "Although this is a work of fiction, the book deals with race in complex ways and will challenge students to confront pre-existing ideas about race, slavery, and human relationships at a time when they also have opportunities to revisit the foundations of the Civil War through events marking the sesquicentennial in 2011." All incoming first-year students received the book when they were on campus for summer orientation. The book was widely available for continuing students through the library, Liberty cafeteria, and other browsing locations. A pilot project also allowed students to read the ebook by checking out a Kindle from the Library. The College Reads! is the College of Charleston's common reading program. Each year, The College Reads! engages and connects thousands of students, faculty and staff around a single book to promote the idea that liberally educated people read broadly and discuss with one another ideas arising from the books they share. In 2010, The College Reads! collaborated with the Honors College in founding the Literacy Outreach Initiative. Two-hundred College of Charleston students worked with nearly 4,000 Charleston County children over a seven-week period using a curriculum designed to promote literacy and model a love of reading.

The Charleston community depends on the ocean -- economically, recreationally, gastronomically. Ever wonder how the health of the ocean will impact you? Deborah Cramer spoke at the College of Charleston's School of Sciences and Mathematics about the dependence of all life on the sea. Nobel Prize winner Al Gore wrote of Deborah Cramer's previous book "Great Waters," "I urge everyone to read this book, pass on its teachings, and act on its message." This book was released as the official companion volume to The Smithsonian's new, permanent Sant Ocean Hall at the National Museum of Natural History.

Bosch LLC President and CEO Peter Marks spoke to students in the School of Business on September 15, 2011 as part of the Schottland Speaker Series. Peter J. Marks was born in Singen, Germany in 1953. After an apprenticeship as a machinery fitter from 1968 to 1972, he completed his school education, qualified as an engineer atthe University of Applied Sciences in Konstanz in 1977. He immediately began his career at Bosch starting in operations scheduling and moving to project management to technical plant manager to executive vice president of manufacturing. In 2006, he was named president and CEO. The Schottland Scholars Program is for exceptional undergraduate business students who have been selected through a rigorous application and interview process. The program fosters the professional development of highly motivated students by providing them with challenging, extracurricular opportunities in the business community. For more information about the College of Charleston School of Business: http://sb.cofc.edu

George G. Spaulding Distiniguished Speaker Series

Patricia Miller co-founded the Vera Bradley company in 1982 with her business partner, Barbara Bradley Baekgaard. This semester, she shared her inspirational entrepreneurship story with students, faculty and the business community. In her presentation, “Friendship, Fashion and Philanthropy”, Bradley related the lessons learned as a business pioneer in an untapped market of stylized handbags and luggage. She shared with students how her business that once started in a garage with a few yards of fabric, creative mindsets and determination, grew into a publicly traded company with revenue exceeding $360 million in 2010.

Jeffrey Immelt, current chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the U.S. based conglomerate General Electric, was the keynote speaker on March 24, 2011 for the College of Charleston Friends of the Library's Winthrop Roundtable.

(Low audio level) The College of Charleston Friends of the Library and the Center for Women hosted an event with former S.C. First Lady Jenny Sanford. Center for Women Executive Director Jennet Robinson Alterman led the candid conversation.

College of Charleston hosted a workshop with Grammy and Tony award winning artist Duncan Sheik, composer of "Spring Awakening" in November 2008. Sheik later performed at the College of Charleston Sottile Theatre.