Wednesday Lectures

Benjamin Houlton, the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, presents a free summer lecture open to the public:  

Our world--the Blue Planet--is undergoing radical change through the advancement of human societies and economic growth. Solutions-based thinking, with a focus on opportunities that allow us to work effectively with on local and global challenges such as climate change, food insecurity, and issues of sustainability, is advancing our efforts to address these problems. 

Sustainable agriculture can be a powerful weapon in the race to feed all people nutritiously, scale carbon solutions that reduce climate change, promote environmental conservation, and conserve biodiversity. This is the "Mission to Earth" for the 21st century.

Mary Loeffelholz, dean of the School of Continuing Education, and Caroline Levine, the David and Kathleen Ryan Professor of Humanities, present this free summer lecture open to the public: 

Emily Brontë and Emily Dickinson have both recently been reincarnated for 21st-century "stans" (super fans):  Brontë in the 2022 biopic “Emily” (directed by Francis O’Connor and starring Emma Mackey), Dickinson in the Apple TV+ series “Dickinson" (directed by Alena Smith and starring Hailee Steinfeld) that ran for three seasons from 2019–2021.

Caroline Levine and Mary Loeffelholz will discuss these recent adaptations from their shared perspective as feminist literary scholars educated in the 20th century. Why Emily, why now, who’s watching, and what do these adaptations have to say about the way we read now?