51¹ÙÍø.

Established in 2012, the Hansford M. Epes Distinguished Lecture Series in the Humanities celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Humanities Program at 51¹ÙÍø.

The series honors Hansford Epes '61 who served in the program as Professor of German and Humanities for almost five decades before he retired in 2012.

The 2024-2025 Epes lecturer will be Professor Ravit Reichman, Brown University.  "Scale of Ownership:  Identity in the Shadow of Property"

Past Lectures

2022-2023
"To Trip the Black Fantastic:  Flex, Flow and Futurity in Black Expressive Culture"
Jayna Brown, Professor and Chair, Department of Theatre Arts & Performance Studies, Brown University

2021-2022
"Change Your Mind First: College and the Urge to Save the World"
William Deresiewicz

2020-2021
"Into the Dark: Reading Hannah Arendt’s Poems"
Samantha Rose Hill, Bard College & Brooklyn Institute

2019-2020
"Using Theater for Social Change"
Sarah Bellamy, Artistic Director Penumbra Theater Company

2018-2019
"What Does Russia Want"
Julia Ioffe, Journalist

2017-2018
"Permanent Crisis: The Humanities in a Disenchanted Age"
Chad Wellmon, University of Virginia

2016-2017
"Black Music as Beautiful Noise, from Blues to Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar"
Bill Banfield, Berklee College of Music

2015-2016
"The Uses and Abuses of Romanticism"
Larry Todd, Duke University

2013-2014
"Reading with Hiccups: The Humanities, Climate Change, and You" 
Simon Richter, University of Pennsylvania

2012-2013
"The Truth is Terrible: Nietzsche's Idea of an Aesthetic Justification for Existence"
Brian Leiter, University of Chicago

2011-2012
"The Uses of the Past and the Humanist Tradition"
Carol Quillen, President, 51¹ÙÍø