Notable Lectures and Performances at Colorado College

English Professor Dave Mason gives a hypothetical “last lecture.”

After reflecting on what matters to them, speakers give a hypothetical “last lecture,” conveying whatever insights they want to impart to the world as a culmination of their thinking on the topic of their choosing. Although a history major when he attended CC, he took many courses in the Political Science department, to which he returned as a teacher in 1983. He received tenure some years later in 1989 and became a full professor in 1996. During his tenure, Professor Hendrickson along with teaching courses in American foreign policy and international relations also directs the journalism minor at Colorado College. He has authored seven books. His website, www.davidhendrickson.org, provides a lot more information including full text links to his essays and various instructional materials.

On February 20th, 2020, New Mexico Senator Tom Udall delivers the keynote speech "A 'Quiet Crisis' No More: Conservation and Climate Change in the West" at the Celeste Theatre in Cornerstone Arts Center for a symposium celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Conservation in the West poll by the State of the Rockies Project.

“All People’s Breakfast,” featuring keynote speaker Ryan P. Haygood ’97, Esq. presenting “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?” One of the nation’s leading civil rights lawyers, Haygood is the executive director and chief executive officer of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice. An advocate for equity, he works to empower urban communities; Haygood also speaks and writes regularly on issues concerning race, law, civil rights, and democracy. Recorded January, 20, 2020.

Are we talking about Indians, American Indians, Natives, Native Americans, Indigenous Peoples, First Peoples, or Original Peoples? Are we talking about “tribes” or sovereign nations? Are we talking about what we call ourselves or what the colonial powers named us? Furthermore, are we talking about race, ethnicity, cultural identity, tribal identity, national identity, or some other form of identity? Indigenous folk in the United States navigate and negotiate complex amounts of social identity. Why is this important? Because for Native and Indigenous persons in the US, the consequences and lived experiences associated with these different forms of identity representation are at best, complex, and at worst, alienating and discriminatory. Indigeneity involves racial, cultural, and political identity criteria, which serve to construct boundaries–boundaries that serve to confuse our ability to define and identify Indigeneity. Indeed, very little consensus exists about Indigenous identity among or between individuals, communities, or academia. We continue to struggle with questions like: What constitutes Indigeneity? How do we measure Indianness? How do we account for identity variations between reservation, non-reservation, urban, and rural living? Who truly possesses, performs, or holds American Indian identity? In other words, who is a “real Indian” today? This talk will explore my findings through conversations with 698 people who represent 322 federally recognized tribes. Dr. Dwanna L. McKay, Assistant Professor of Indigenous Studies in the Race, Ethnicity, and Migration Studies Program at Colorado College

Citizens of today and tomorrow need to be able to solve the challenges of the world, including the existential threats of a changing climate, depleted biodiversity, and disrupted communities with the vision of a scientist, the discipline of an engineer, the heart of a humanist, and the creativity of an artist. This is the goal of a liberal arts education. In this session, Provost Alan Townsend will moderate a discussion with Drs. Marcia McNutt and Jane Lubchenco, two distinguished scientists and CC alumnae who have exemplified a cross-disciplinary and leading approach to science and its relevance to our lives. Drs. Lubchenco and McNutt will talk about the advantages of the liberal arts backgrounds in their own careers, how that approach to education is more important than ever, and how it can help society move forward at a critical time.

The campaign and presidency of Donald Trump has ushered in a new white supremacist era, manifesting white supremacist rhetoric, policies, and violence. What lessons from the past can we employ? What does resistance look like? How can we envision and create a political, economic, and social justice movement rooted in resistance? Rosa Alicia Clemente is an organizer, political commentator, and independent journalist. An Afro-Puerto Rican born and raised in the Bronx, N.Y., she has dedicated her life to organizing, scholarship, and activism. Clemente is one of her generation’s leading scholars on the issues of Afro-Latinx identity. She is the president and founder of Know Thy Self Productions, which has produced seven major community activism tours and consults on issues such as hip-hop feminism, media justice, voter engagement among youth of color, third-party politics, United States political prisoners, and the right of Puerto Rico to become an independent nation free of United States colonial domination. She is a frequent guest on television, radio, and online media, as her opinions on critical current events are widely sought after. Her groundbreaking article, “Who is Black?” published in 2001, was the catalyst for many discussions regarding Black political and cultural identity in the Latinx community. She is creator of PR (Puerto Rico) On The Map, an independent, unapologetic, Afro-Latinx centered media collective founded in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. She is currently completing her Ph.D. at the W.E.B. DuBois Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Clemente was the first-ever Afro-Latina women to run for vice-president of the United States in 2008 on the Green Party ticket. She and her running mate, Cynthia McKinney, were to this date the only women of color ticket in American history.

This year's Sabine Distinguished Lecture in Psychology is "Flow and the Quality of Life" by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Ph.D., one of the world's leading authorities on the psychology of creativity. His life's work has been to study what makes people truly happy. Drawing upon years of systematic research, he developed the concept of "flow" as a metaphorical description of the rare mental state associated with feelings of optimal satisfaction and fulfillment. His analysis of the internal and external conditions giving rise to "flow" show that it is almost always linked to circumstances of high challenge when personal skills are used to the utmost. Csikszentmihalyi is a Fellow of several scientific societies, the National Academy of Education, and a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Serving on the editorial boards of numerous professional journals, he has been a consultant to business, government organizations, educational associations, and cultural institutions and has given invited lectures throughout the world. In addition to the hugely influential "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience," he is the author of 13 other books translated into 23 different languages, and some 245 research articles on optimal development, creativity, and well-being. He is considered the co-founder of positive psychology.

David Axelrod gives the Abbott Memorial Lecture, speaking on the 2016 election, and what the results will mean. David Axelrod is a veteran of American politics and journalism and the former chief strategist and senior advisor to President Barack Obama. He currently serves as director of the University of Chicago's non-partisan Institute of Politics; senior political commentator for CNN; and host of “The Axe Files,” a top-rated podcast jointly produced by CNN and his institute. Axelrod, a former political writer for the Chicago Tribune and, later, media strategist for 150 state, local, and national political campaigns, is also the author of The New York Times best-selling memoir, “Believer: My Forty Years in Politics.”

Veteran Democratic political strategist Donna Brazile is an adjunct professor, author, syndicated columnist, television political commentator, vice chair for civic engagement and voter participation at the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and former interim national chair of the DNC as well as the former chair of the DNC’s Voting Rights Institute. Aside from working to rebuild her beloved hometown of New Orleans, Brazile’s passion is encouraging young people to vote, to work within the system to strengthen it, and to run for public office. Since 2000, Brazile has lectured at over 185 colleges and universities across the country on such topics as “Inspiring Civility in American Politics,” “Race Relations in the Age of Obama,” “Why Diversity Matters,” and “Women in American Politics.” Brazile is founder and managing director of Brazile & Associates LLC, a general consulting, grassroots advocacy, and training firm based in Washington, D.C.

The bestselling author, award-winning journalist, and accomplished mountain climber discusses his adventurous life in letters. The author of Into Thin Air, Into the Wild, Under the Banner of Heaven, and, most recently, Missoula, appears on stage with his long-time editor and friend, Mark Bryant, the award-winning former editor of Outside, for a revealing look at one of America's master craftsmen of non-fiction. This recording contains language that may be offensive.

Mr. Forbes is currently associate vice president in the Office of Government and Community Affairs at Columbia University. At 16 years old he became the youngest member of the Black Panther Party's Central Committee and was a senior member of that organization for a decade. He spent 4 years as a fugitive after being dispatched by Huey P. Newton to assassinate a witness against him and ultimately 4 years, 8 months, and 9 days as an inmate in Soledad and San Quentin Prisons in California. Flores has written a book on his experience, Will You Die With Me?, and will be giving a talk on the "real" political philosophies that informed the BPP (Fanon, Carlos Miraghella and Huey Newton's concept of the "Buddha Samurai") rather than the thinkers they exposed to the public.

The Journalist-In-Residence Lecture Series presents Daniel James Brown, New York Times bestselling author of "The Boys in the Boat". "The Boys in the Boat" celebrates the 1936 U.S. men's Olympic eight-oar rowing team-nine working class boys who stormed the rowing world, transformed the sport, and galvanized the attention of millions of Americans. The sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers from the American West, the boys took on and defeated successive echelons of privilege and power.

Vincent Stanley, the current VP of marketing at the clothing company Patagonia, and co-author with Yvon Chouinard of "The Responsible Company: What We've Learned From Patagonia's First 40 Years" will speak on his recently published book and his experiences with Patagonia since the company's founding in 1973. Patagonia, named by Fortune in 2007 as the coolest company on the planet, has earned a reputation as much for its ground-breaking environmental and social practices as for the quality of its clothes. In "The Responsible Company," Chouinard and Stanley recount how the company and its culture gained the confidence, by step and misstep, to make its work progressively more responsible, and to ultimately share its discoveries with companies as large as Wal-Mart or as small as the corner bakery.

America is at a crossroads in its history. The world is changing rapidly. How we react to these changes, among them global climate change and shortages of key energy resources, will determine whether we prosper or flounder. Unfortunately, extremely powerful forces now prevent us from enacting the measures required to build a truly sustainable future based on a renewable energy economy. Dan Chiras is a visiting professor of environmental science and director of The Evergreen Institute in east-central Missouri. Recorded April 27, 2011.

This year President Richard Celeste will award the 2011 Champion of the Rockies Award to conservationist, advocate for free speech, and author of "Refuge," Terry Tempest Williams. Terry Tempest Williams will then address the audience with several selected readings. Recorded April 4, 2011.

David Philipps talks about his book, a chronicle of the Army unit from Fort Carson that was plagued by post-traumatic stress disorder. Misdiagnosed or untreated since returning from war, some soldiers from the unit embarked on drug-fueled crime sprees, some of which resulted in murder. Recorded March 1, 2011.

Jaron Lanier—scientist, author, musician, and artist—visits campus to ruminate on "media technology as a grand exploration of unimagined human potential." Combining elements of cognition, Microsoft's XBOX, chemistry, and musical improvisation, among other things, Lanier takes us on a journey into the possibilities, pitfalls, and potential of New Media. Lanier has been labeled the pioneer of virtual reality (a term he coined), and his 2010 bestseller "You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto," has been described by the New York Times as "necessary reading for anyone interested in how the web and the software we use every day are reshaping culture and the marketplace." Recorded February 8, 2012.

Nolan Doesken is a state climatologist who has been monitoring Colorado’s climate for decades. Mike King is the executive director of Colorado Department of Natural Resources. Their combined expertise will offer a unique view of Colorado forests from a Colorado government perspective. Recorded December 6, 2010.

Tony Dixon is the deputy regional forester of the Rocky Mountain Region and Jan Burke is the forest health coordinator for the White River National Forest. Their talk stems from their many years of experience working for the U.S. Forest Service in Colorado and examines the White River National Forest in Northwestern Colorado. Recorded November 8, 2010.

David Weddle, professor of religion, will present his new book on miracles. The work examines the enduring interest in miracle stories in five world religions from tales of flying yogis and rebbes with healing power to levitating bodhisattvas, miracle-working saints, and disappearing Sufi masters. Recorded November 9, 2010.

Phi Kappa Visiting Scholar Jack Goldstone will lecture on global population trends and their significance. Recorded November 4, 2010.

Robert Shedinger, author of "Was Jesus a Muslim?" gave a lecture with the same title, focusing on countering Islamophobia with authentic dialogue. Shedinger is an associate religion professor and chair of the department at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. He teaches courses on Islam and has lectured on Western perceptions of Islam. He also is the author of "Tatian and the Jewish Scriptures" and coeditor of "Who Killed Goliath? Reading the Bible with Heart and Mind." Recorded September 24, 2010.

Dustin Lance Black, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of the film "Milk," is coming to Colorado College to speak on social movements in film and media with a focus on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender inequality. Recorded April 2, 2010.

Jeffrey Wasserstrom, an expert on Shanghai history, is author of several works on China, including "Global Shanghai, 1850 – 2010: A History in Fragments" (2009) and "China's Brave New World and Other Tales for Global Times" (2007). His newest work, "China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know," will be published by Oxford University Press in April. Recorded March 31, 2010.

Four governors, on one stage, in one night: Former Colorado Governors Dick Lamm, Roy Romer, and Bill Owens discuss their common challenges and successes during their terms of office, and provide valuable insights for the next person to fill this leadership role. Colorado College President Dick Celeste, a former two-term governor of Ohio, will facilitate the discussion. Recorded March 31, 2010.

Lois Quam, an internationally recognized visionary and leader on the emerging New Green Economy (NGE) and universal health care reform, is the founder and chair of Tysvar, LLC, a newly created, privately held, Minnesota-based NGE and health care reform incubator, and was named one of America's "50 Most Powerful Women" by Fortune magazine in 2006. Recorded March 1, 2010.

Charles W. Mills will deliver the annual J. Glenn and Ursula Gray Memorial Lecture on "Race and Liberalism." Professor Mills’s first book, "The Racial Contract" (Cornell, 1997), reassessed the social contract philosophy at the heart of early modern Western constitutionalism and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Recorded February 25, 2010.

Dr. Bonnie Lynn-Sherow's talk will focus on the mythological power of the "family farm" ideal in American history and the West in particular. She will discuss the "mythical" power of Jeffersonian agrarianism, and how it has been transformed into something Jefferson would never have recognized.

George Weigel, the official biographer of Pope John Paul II, reflects on how we see the implications of his legacy and achievement today. George Weigel (Baltimore, 1951 - ) is an American Catholic author, and political and social activist. Recorded February 23, 2010.

Poets Conrad and Jane Hilberry read from their work. His books include "After Music" and "Sorting the Smoke." She’s the winner of the Colorado Book Award for "Body Painting." Recorded December 10, 2009.

Dr. Vitolo is both a penmanship historian and a calligrapher. He has dedicated considerable effort to rediscovering and documenting the history of American penmen/calligraphers from ‘The Golden Age of Ornamental Penmanship’. This lecture will explore that rich history and bring to light some of the now forgotten artists from the period. Recorded November 6, 2009.

Dr. Bernard Amadei, founder of the organization "Engineers Without Borders", presents an informative and passionate program with a slide show of the small engineering projects in third world countries that have improved the lives of the people living there.

If, as many believe, the people of this world do little to address climate change and the average temperature of the world keeps rising, what will happen to our oceans, our weather, ecosystems and food supply? Cole Wilbur, Trustee and Past President of the David and Lucille Packard Foundation has been involved in Venture Philanthropy for over 33 years. He will discuss why the Packard and Hewlett Foundations have pledged $1 billion and hope to have that matched to keep the Earths temperature from rising no more than 2 degrees C by 2030. Recorded September 15, 2009.

Colorado College presents “A Conversation With Sen. George S. McGovern,” the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee, three-term U.S. senator and two-term congressman, food and agriculture ambassador to the United Nations, and decorated B-24 pilot in the Second World War. McGovern will discuss his latest book, "Abraham Lincoln," as well as current topics ranging from Afghanistan and Iraq to health care and world hunger. Recorded September 15, 2009.

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. James M. McPherson is the George Henry Davis '86 Professor of History at Princeton University, the 2000 Jefferson Lecturer in Humanities, and was 2003 president of the American Historical Association. America's leading historian of the Civil War, he won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for "Battle Cry of Freedom," which was a New York Times best seller. Recorded April 1, 2009.

Revered Tibetan Buddhist monk and scholar Khen Rinpoche Lobzang Tsetan, from Ladakh, India, will present Buddhist perspectives on love, compassion and forgiveness in conversation with Prof. David Gardiner of the Colorado College Religion department. Recorded March 27, 2009.

Laurence Maslon is the co-creator of "Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America," a six-part series broadcast nationally by PBS in January. "Make 'Em Laugh" is the first documentary of its kind to give context to nearly 100 years of American comedy on stage, film, radio, television, and stand-up and to honor the geniuses who created our country's unique form of performance humor. Recorded March 9, 2009.

Edward C. Prescott discusses the advantages and disadvantages of economic integration among sovereign states with respect to economic growth, involving more generally an analysis of globalization. Professor Prescott is a senior monetary advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and is a major figure in macroeconomics, especially the theories of business cycles and general equilibrium. Recorded March 2, 2009.

Richard Schechner, the leading voice of performance studies in America and the founder of New York University's Performance Studies Program, delivers this year's keynote address for the Cornerstone Arts Initiative. The lecture will examine how the arts scene in the United States has developed since 9/11, and the transmutative effects that have altered our perceptions of art, performance and the avant-garde. Recorded February 4, 2009.

This homecoming panel is part of the college's Sondermann Series: Elections 2008. Panelists include Chuck Buxton '68, senior editor at the Santa Rosa Press Democrat; Eric Sondermann '76, president of SE2 Associates in Denver; and CC political science professors Timothy Fuller and Bob Loevy. Recorded October 10, 2008.

Betty Bright is a Minneapolis-based curator and critic of the book arts. In this slide-illustrated talk, she will explore the role of The Press at Colorado College on the national book arts scene. Bright's discussion will focus on the work of James Trissel at The Press between 1978 and 1998. Her lecture is the final event in Pressfest 2008, a celebration of the work of The Press at Colorado College, now in its 30th year.

A high-profile senior analyst for CNN and staff writer for The New Yorker, Jeffrey Toobin is one of the country's most esteemed experts on politics, media and the law. The author of critically acclaimed New York Times bestsellers, Toobin's 2007 book The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, delves into the historical, political and personal inner workings of the Supreme Court and its justices to reveal the inside story of one of America's most mysterious and powerful institutions. Recorded August 23, 2008.

Former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins was the 2008 commencement speaker. Collins became a household name when, in 2001, he was named Poet Laureate of the United States, a position he held for two years. He subsequently served as New York State Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006.

Gale Norton served as the 48th Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior from 2001-2006. The first woman to head the 153-year-old department, Norton made what she calls the Four C's the cornerstone of her tenure: Consultation, Communications, and Cooperation, all the the service of Conservation. At the heart of the Four C's is the belief that for conservation to be successful, the government must involve the people who live and work on the land. Recorded April 7, 2008.

John Riker, professor of philosophy at Colorado College, is the author of "Human Excellence and an Ecological Conception of the Self" and "Ethics and the Discovery of the Unconscious." Recorded March 6, 2008.

Legendary singer, songwriter, actress and human rights activist Odetta will perform as part of CC's Black History Celebration. Dubbed by Martin Luther King, Jr. as the "Queen of American Folk Music", she has been cited as the main influence of artists such as Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Tracy Chapman, Carly Simon and Jewel. Her most recent album, "Gonna Let it Shine," received a 2007 Grammy nod and Real Blues Magazine referred to it as "the most important album of this generation." Recorded February 21, 2008.

Accomplished comedienne, writer, actress and singer Sandra Bernhard presents the 2008 Cornerstone Arts Week performance. Defying neat categorization, Bernhard is irreverent, intellectual, bawdy, and above all, wildly entertaining. With laser-sharp insight, Bernhard addresses issues ranging from the war in Iraq to the endless media coverage of minor starlets. Through music, storytelling and commentary, Bernhard questions how we determine what is authentic within a media-saturated world. Recorded February 6, 2008.

Bill Ritter Jr. was elected as Colorado's 41st governor in 2006 -- the first Colorado-born governor in more than 35 years. The sixth of 12 children, Gov. Ritter was raised on a small farm in Arapahoe County. He was a member of the first graduating class of Gateway High School (1974), and earned his bachelor's degree in political science from Colorado State University (1978) and his law degree from the University of Colorado (1981). His first job out of law school was as a deputy district attorney in Denver. In 1987, Ritter and his wife, Jeannie Ritter, left Denver to run a food distribution and nutrition center in Zambia, Africa. They returned home in 1990, and three years later Ritter was appointed as Denver's top prosecutor, a position he held until January 2005.

Joel Salatin is on the forefront of what may be the most important global issue facing the world today: How to create a world food system not enslaved by multinational corporations and governmental subsidies. Named the most innovative farmer in the nation, he is an articulate voice of the natural food movement, whose holistic approach is environmentally, socially and economically sustainable. Salatin will discuss how, for the first time in history, most food is consumed without an awareness of its place, heritage, social or spiritual implications. Recorded January 24, 2008.

Greg Mortenson, author of the New York Times best-selling book "Three Cups of Tea," will discuss his experiences in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Since 1997, Mortenson's Central Asia Institute has raised funds to build 64 schools in remote tribal areas of the two countries. Mortenson puts a fresh -- and effective -- face on international security and the potential of one person as a force of positive influence. Image courtesy Greg Mortenson, Central Asia Institute. Recorded January 15, 2008.