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Perspectives on the Common Good
William Jewell College’s “Perspectives on the Common Good” lecture series focuses on themes of selfhood and responsibility, challenging listeners to explore the complexities of values in a pluralistic world. Through the generosity of several benefactors, William Jewell has created a distinctive lecture series that facilitates both internal and external community conversation about defining contemporary issues.
All lectures are free and open to the public in the John Gano Memorial Chapel on the William Jewell College campus in Liberty, Missouri. For more information on the lecture series, call 816/415-7681.
Funding for the lectures comes from the Walter Pope Binns, James C. Cope, Gary Dickinson, Hall Distinguished Lecture and Service Learning Program endowments. The series also underscores themes of leadership explored in the college’s Pryor Leadership Studies Program.
Past Lectures...
 The Hall Distinguished Visiting Professorship Lecture
Garry Wills, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, historian and critic
“Values Americans Live By”
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Renowned cultural historian and best-selling author Garry Wills began writing professionally at the age of twenty-two, when a story he had written parodying Time magazine was accepted by William F. Buckley, Jr. at the National Review. Over the course of his career, he has penned thirty-three books, including Nixon Agonistes (1970), Reagan’s America (1987), Saint Augustine (1999), Why I Am a Catholic (2002) and What Jesus Meant (2006). In 1993, he received the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction for Lincoln at Gettsyburg: The Words that Remade America (1992), an examination of the 272-word Gettysburg Address. Former New York governor Mario Cuomo wrote of the book, “Seldom have so few words excited such scholarship, penetrating analysis, and brilliant explication.”
Wills was born in Georgia and grew up in Wisconsin. Raised in a family of devout Catholics and educated in Catholic schools, Wills briefly planned to join the priesthood, but instead turned to classics, earning his Ph.D. from Yale in 1961. Wills is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books and a recipient of many awards, including two National Book Critics Circle Awards and the 1998 National Medal for the Humanities. He is an adjunct professor of history at Northwestern University.
The Cope Lecture on Science, Technology and the Human Experience
Michael Osterholm, Director, Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy
“Pandemic Flu: Facing the Threat”
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Dr. Michael Osterholm is one of the world’s leading experts on public preparedness for pandemics and bioterrorist attacks. As the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), he is a key figure in helping governments and other organizations to develop plans to address these dual threats.
Dr. Osterholm provided a comprehensive and pointed review of America’s current state of preparedness for a bioterrorism attack in his New York Times best-selling book, Living Terrors: What America Needs to Know to Survive the Coming Bioterrorist Catastrophe. In addition to his role with CIDRAP, he is also associate director of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Center for Food Protection and Defense, and professor in the School of Public Health, University of Minnesota. He is also a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. In June 2005 Dr. Osterholm was appointed by Michael Leavitt, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, to the newly established National Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity. From 2001 through early 2005, Dr. Osterholm served as a Special Advisor to then-HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson on issues related to bioterrorism and public health preparedness. He was also appointed to the Secretary’s Advisory Council on Public Health Preparedness.
The Women and Society Lecture
Farai Chideya, NPR correspondent and socio-political analyst
“Looking for the Good Life: The Pursuit of Happiness in a Pluralistic Democracy”
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Farai Chideya is a multimedia journalist who has worked in print, television, online and radio. Prior to joining NPR’s “News & Notes” with Ed Gordon, Chideya hosted “Your Call,” a daily news and cultural call-in show on San Francisco’s KALW 91.7 FM. Chideya has also been a correspondent for ABC News, anchored the prime time program “Pure Oxygen” on the Oxygen women’s channel, and contributed commentaries to CNN, Fox, MSNBC and BET. She got her start as a researcher and reporter at Newsweek magazine. In 1997 Newsweek named her to its “Century Club” of 100 people to watch.
Chideya, who graduated with a B.A. from Harvard University magna cum laude in 1990, is also the founder of PopandPolitics.com, an online journal for younger Americans. In 2004, the site became part of the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism at San Francisco State University, and is run by editor Jean Chen. Chideya has won widespread recognition. She received a MOBE IT Innovator award; was named one of Alternet’s New Media Heroes; and was ranked in PoliticsOnline.com’s worldwide survey of “25 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics.”
Chideya has published three books. Don’t Believe the Hype: Fighting Cultural Misinformation About African Americans (Plume Penguin, 1995) is now in its eighth printing. The Color of Our Future (William Morrow, 1999) explores the changing racial identities of America’s teens, and chronicles Chideya’s travels from the Crow reservation in Montana to a ninety-nine percent white Indiana town to South Central Los Angeles. The Color of Our Future was named one of the best books for teens by the New York Public Library and along with Don’t Believe the Hype is featured in college curricula across the country. Chideya’s newest book, Trust: Reaching the 100 Million Missing Voters, shows why half of Americans are cut out of the political system–and what we can do about it.
The Binns Lecture on the Sacred and Secular, and Power and Justice in Society
Brian D. McLaren, author, emergent networker and Christian activist
“Faith, Culture and Higher Education”
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 31, 2006 | 10:15 a.m. Wednesday, November 1, 2006
Brian D. McLaren is a pastor, author, speaker and networker among innovative Christian leaders, thinkers and activists. He is a frequent guest on television, radio and news media programs. He has appeared on many broadcasts, including “Larry King Live,” “Religion and Ethics Newsweekly” and “Nightline.” His work has also been covered in Time (where he was listed as one of America’s 25 most influential evangelicals), Christianity Today, Christian Century and many other print media.
Born in 1956, he graduated from the University of Maryland with degrees in English (B.A., summa cum laude, 1978, and M.A., in 1981). His academic interests included Medieval drama, Romantic poets, modern philosophical literature and the novels of Dr. Walker Percy. In 2004, he was awarded a Doctor of Divinity Degree (honoris causa) from Carey Theological Seminary in Vancouver, B.C., Canada.
From 1978 to 1986, McLaren taught college English, and in 1982, he helped form Cedar Ridge Community Church, an innovative, nondenominational church in the Baltimore-Washington region (crcc.org). He left higher education in 1986 to serve as the church’s
senior pastor and served in that capacity until 2006. During that time, Cedar Ridge earned a reputation as a leader among emerging missional congregations.
McLaren’s first book, The Church on the Other Side: Doing Ministry in the Postmodern Matrix, has been recognized as a primary portal into the current conversation about postmodern ministry. His second book, Finding Faith, is a contemporary apologetic, written for thoughtful seekers and skeptics. His third book, A New Kind of Christian further explores issues of Christian faith and postmodernity, and won Christianity Today’s “Award of Merit” in 2002. The Secret Message of Jesus explores the theme of the kingdom of God in the teachings of Jesus.
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