University Lecture Series

WNBA president discusses gender equality in sports at university lecture
By Yufei Wu
March 20, 2015 - 3:47pm
Laurel Richie tackled issues facing women and LGBT athletes in the sporting community at the second university lecture of the semester.

Laurel J. Richie, the president of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), had an in-depth conversation with the audience at Hendricks Chapel on Wednesday evening. As the leader of the longest running women’s professional sport league in the country, Richie shared her insights about women's sports, as well as about the issues and opportunities of the WNBA.

University Lectures series lineup announced
By Benjamin Fang
May 2, 2014 - 4:16am
The 2014-2015 guest speakers include Van Jones, co-host of CNN’s Crossfire and Laurel J. Richie, the president of the WNBA.

Syracuse University announced next year’s University Lectures series speakers on Wednesday.

Beginning on September 30, seven distinguished guests from different disciplines will speak at Hendricks Chapel.

Pulitzer Prize-winning Kushner talks literature and politics
By Andrew Martini
October 8, 2013 - 11:03pm
The Syracuse University Lecture Series kicked-off its 2013-2014 season on Tuesday with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, screenwriter and author Tony Kushner.

The Syracuse University Lecture Series kicked-off its 2013-2014 season on Tuesday with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, screenwriter and author Tony Kushner.

Hendricks Chapel teemed with life as students and adults gathered to listen as Kal Alston, director of the University Lectures, sat down to have a conversation with Kushner. Kushner’s most recent work, the critically acclaimed film Lincoln, for which Kushner wrote the Academy Award-nominated screenplay, took center stage in the evening’s discussions.

National Geographic photographer Jim Richardson discusses light pollution
By Jingnan Li
March 19, 2013 - 10:01pm
The veteran photographer spoke in Hendricks Chapel Tuesday about potentially harmful effects related to "vanishing nights."

Jim Richardson, National Geographic photographer since 1984, spoke to a full house at Hendrick's Chapel Tuesday night, to express his concern about light pollution through his lecture, “Our Vanishing Night: Light Pollution.”

Roz Savage shares her experience rowing across the Atlantic Ocean
By Gwendolyn Craig
February 28, 2013 - 11:16am
The 2010 National Geographic "Adventurer of the Year" spoke in Hendricks Chapel about the 103-day journey at sea.

Life can seem pretty bleak when you’re in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and all four of your rowing oars are broken.  And you’re alone.  And you don’t have a motor. 

That happened to Roz Savage, an environmentalist and the first woman to row across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans.

British novelist asks, “Why Write?”
By Tara Donaldson
March 20, 2012 - 8:49pm
Zadie Smith delivered the second lecture in the spring semester for the annual University Lecture series.

In a floral frock, pink head wrap and black-rimmed glasses covering a third of her face, Zadie Smith is anything but dull.

But the accomplished British novelist -- who still wonders how she manages to draw a crowd -- told a captive audience at Hendricks Chapel Tuesday night that writers’ lectures make her uncomfortable.

You just never know what to do, she said. “You glance around, look at your nails then back at the writer and wonder what she is saying.”

Reclaiming the nation
By Camille Bautista
October 4, 2011 - 11:56pm
The Nation editor Katherine vanden Heuvel advocates for citizens retaking the government at Syracuse University's second University Lecture.

Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation magazine, called for an actively engaged citizenship in today’s political landscape as she spoke to students, faculty and the Syracuse community in the University Lectures series Tuesday.

Audience members in Hendricks Chapel applauded in agreement as vanden Heuvel explored issues of the Tea Party, the corrupting influence of corporate money, President Obama’s current political role and the overarching responsibility of the media.

Engineering with a human face
By Matt Harrigan
November 17, 2010 - 1:00am
Bernard Amadei explains how engineers can help make the world a better place.

On Tuesday evening, Bernard Amadei assured the Hendricks Chapel audience that he came in peace.

The co-founder and president of Engineers Without Borders - USA promised he wouldn’t talk about fancy engineering or explain complex equations. He wanted to speak to the Syracuse University students and faculty about engineering with a human face.

To do good or not, that is the question
By Emily Brandstetter
October 19, 2010 - 5:12pm
Five-time Emmy winner and columnist Randy Cohen discusses ethics in today's society at Hendricks Chapel.

Randy Cohen writes “The Ethicist” column in The New York Times Magazine, but said he is not an expert in ethics and sometimes wonders how he got his job.

But after writing the weekly column for 11 years, he must be doing something right.  

“I was not hired to personify virtue, but rather to analyze it,” Cohen told a Hendricks Chapel audience Tuesday night as part of the University Lectures series.

Presidential politics: The making of a political mastermind
By Christine Mehta
October 12, 2010 - 10:35pm
Kathleen Jamieson takes a hard look at the power of speech and rhetoric in the race for the presidency.

An almost full-house in Hendricks Chapel watched former president Bill Clinton declare once again on the projector screen that he “did not have sexual relations with that woman.” A second later the audience burst into laughter as the word TRANSLATION flashed onto the screen along with, “Bill Clinton does not define sexual ‘contact’ as relations.”