The Lecture Committee selects, schedules, and makes arrangements for visiting lecturers who would be of interest to the College community. The committee frequently works in conjunction with departments, programs, and administrative offices of the College to co-sponsor appearances. While the Lecture Committee is not the only source of funds for this purpose, it is an important one. The Director of Commencement and Academic Events serves as an ex officio voting member.
The Lecture Committee, through a subcommittee composed only of its faculty members, also invites Williams faculty colleagues to present public lectures in the annual Faculty Lecture Series, which occur each Thursday in the first half of the spring semester. The chair of the subcommittee need not be the same as the chair of the main committee.
There will be two rounds of funding for the fall: September 20 and November 8, 2024. The deadline for spring event funding is Feb 14 , 2025.
Here is the memo for 2024-25 funding. We welcome you to fill out our online request form.
More information on planning your event and setting up speaker contracts.
Membership
The Lecture Committee is composed of 3 faculty, 1 staff, and 3 students (3-1-3)
- Phoebe Cohen (Chair)
- Ohan Breiding
- Matthew Gibson
- Lauren Barenski, Director of Academic and Presidential Events
- Charles Hughes ’28
-
Jake Sokolofsky ’27
-
Beza Lulseged ’25
2024-2025 Lecture Committee Sponsored Events
Fall 2024
Monuments Decolonized – Talk by and with Prof. Susan Slyomovics, UCLA
Book Talk with Dr. Onoso Imoagene (NYU Abu Dhabi)
Hanne Eisenfeld: “The Information Gap: Knowledge and Prophecy in Euripides’ Ion”
What’s Up with the Republican Party? A Historian’s View
Kif-Kif Bledi Performance – North African and Fusion Dance
Philosophy Fall Colloquium
DJ Scholarship and Why Willie May Thornton Matters
Alignment and Anatomy Basics for Dancers
Ballet Variation workshop with dancer Duane Gosa
Ballet Variation Workshop with Boston Ballet principal dancer John Lam
Talk on “Queer Migration and Asylum from Russia
Speaking Across Generations and Geographies of the Ongoing Nakba
Fiction Author Gina Chung
Jewish and Palestinian Queer Communities with Tomer Aldubi
Don’t Tell Me To Love My Body: Anti-Fatness And Body Liberation
Race and Slavery in the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d’Alembert
Williams, Mission Park, and the Struggle for Sovereignty in Hawai’i
Psychoanalysis and the Social Colloquium: Amber Musser, Avgi Saketopoulou, and Patricia Expo in Conversation
Spring 2025
Standing Up for Justice: A Conversation with Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf on Activism, Social Change, and Values
U.S. Faultlines in Mexico: How Gender Shapes Deportation, Coerced Return, and Activism
The Color of Asylum: The Racial Politics of Safe Haven in Brazil Book Talk
Master Drum Workshop in Dunham Technique Rhythms Taught by James Belk
Education, Transformation, and Redemption in the US Prison System
“From Hip Hop Producer to Hip Hop Professor” with Dr. Jason Rawls
Hedwig and the Angry Inch: A Screening and Talk with John Cameron Mitchell
Lucia Corno Presentation
“The Movement Undercommons” with Professor Grisha Coleman
Isaiah Andrews Presentation
He Continues To Make A Difference – The Story of Matthew Shepard
Black Grief, White Grievance: The Politics of Loss. – a talk with Juliet Hooker
Orientalist and Islamophobic Public Pedagogy: Visual Representation of Muslims and Arabs in Pop Culture and Desert Romance Novels
Enjoining the Good: Islam, Politics, and the Spiritual Path of West African Sheikh Dan Fodio
Oyebola Okunogbe Presentation
Workshop on Gender and Race Disparities in US Prisons