Epes Lecture Series
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 2022-2023 Epes lecturer will be Jayna Brown, Professor and Chair of Theater Arts and Performance Studies at Brown University.
Past Lectures
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