Lectures 1999-Present

2023-24

• David Cortright, Professor Emeritus of the Practice, and special advisor for policy studies at the Keough School of Global Affairs and Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. University Lecture: Impacts of Peace Movements on Policy
• Damani Partridge, Professor, Department of Afroamerican & African Studies and Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan – Ann Arbor. University Lecture: Blackness as a Universal Claim: Holocaust Heritage, Noncitizen futures, and Black Power in Berlin”
• Andrew Piper, Professor and William Dawson Scholar in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at McGill University.  University Lecture: Computational Narrative Understanding and the Human Desire to Make-Believe.

2022-23

• Robin Coste Lewis, former poet laureate of Los Angeles, writer-in-residence at the University of Sothern California, as well as a Cave Canem fellow and a fellow of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities. University Lecture: To the Realization of Perfect Helplessness
• Anupama Rao, Professor of History, Barnard College, and MESAAS, Columbia University. University Lecture: Caste, Outcaste, Anticaste: Reflections on Worldmaking
• Gil Anidjar, Professor, Departments of Religion and Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies, Columbia University.  Messenger Lectures:  Freud’s Mothers: The Woman Hagar and the Monotheistic Religion, Two Mothers in Heaven: Inventing the Perfect Mother, and Mama’s Baby: Race and Religion
• Alexander Rudensky, Chair, Immunology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute and Director of The Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. University Lecture: Dominant Tolerance

2021-22

• Professor Emerita Jennifer Robertson, Anthropology and History of Art, Departments of Anthropology and the History of Art, and the Penny W. School of Art & Design, and Affiliate Professor, Robotics Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is also Affiliate Professor, Departments of Anthropology and Japan Studies, University of Washington, Seattle. University Lecture: Robo-Sexism: Gendering AI and Robots in Japan and the United States (and Elsewhere). Lecture video recording.
• Willa Cather Professor Emerita Sidnie White Crawford, Classics and Religious Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Visiting Scholar at Princeton Theological Seminary; Messenger Lectures: Archaeology, Science and the Dead Sea Scrolls, A Library at Qumran? How to Identify a Library in the Ancient World, and Scribes and Scrolls: Scribalism in the Ancient World and the Dead Sea Scrolls

2020-2021   No University or Messenger Lectures due to COVID-19 

2019-20

• Professor Lizabeth Cohen, Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies, Harvard University; University Lecture: Struggling to Save America’s Cities in the Suburban Age: Urban Renewal Reconsidered
• Dr. David Katz, MD, MPH, FACPM, FACP, FACLM,Founder and CEO of DietID; University Lecture: The Truth about Food:  Lifestyle Medicine for People and Planet
• Dr. Mark M. Davis, Professor, Microbiology and Immunology; Director of the Stanford Institute for Immunology, Transplantation and Infection; Stanford University; Howard Hughes Investigator. University Lecture: Standing on the Shoulders of Mice: Rebooting Human Immunology.

2018-19

• Professor Dolph Schluter, Canada Research Chair in Evolution, University of British Columbia. University Lecture: Divergence via biotic interactions in an adaptive radiation.
• Tristram Stuart, Scholar, Entrepreneur and Activist. University Lecture: Food waste & what we can do about it
• Leroy F. Moore, Jr., Artist, Author, Activist, and Founder of Krip-Hop Nation. University Lecture: Black/Brown International Disability Art/Krip-Hop.
• Dr. Henry Bial, Professor of Theatre, University of Kansas. University Lecture: The Gatekeepers: New York Theatre Critics and the Policing of Religion on the American Stage.
• Dr. Carol Anelli, Professor of Entomology, Ohio State University. University Lecture: With Usual Daring on Untried Paths: Anna Botsford Comstock–Educational Trailblazer, Author and Scientific Illustrator.
• Wendy Brown, Professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley. University Lecture: Theorizing Freedom at the Conjuncture of Neoliberalism, White Nationalism and Authoritarianism.

2017-18

• Christina Crosby, Professor of English and Gender and Sexuality Studies at Wesleyan University. University Lecture: Faithful to the Place of Bones.
• Scott Aaronson, Professor, University of Texas at Austin. Messenger Lecture:  1: Complexity-Theoretic Foundations of Quantum Supremacy Experiments,  2: Quantum Computing and the Limits of the Efficiently Computable, 3: New Results on Learning and Reconstruction of Quantum States.
• Zafer Şenocak, Creative Writer and Public Intellectual. University Lecture: Imagining Migration in Contemporary Europe: A Literary Author’s Perspective.
• Raul Andino, Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of California, San Francisco. University Lecture: RNA virus evolution, infection and new vaccines for humans and animals.
• Richard Harris, Science Correspondent at National Public Radio, Washington, DC. University Lecture: Rigor Mortis. Returning delight and rigor to science.
• Stephanie W. Jamison, Professor, Asian Languages and Cultures, UCLA. University Lecture: Adulterous Woman to Be Eaten by Dogs: Women and Law in Ancient India.

2016-17

• Professor Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Chief Curator, Core Exhibition, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews; University Professor Emerita, New York University. University Lecture: Materializing History: Time and Telos at POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews,
• Seth Siegel, Author. University Lecture: A Global Water Crisis Is Coming: What Can We Do To Avoid It.
• Professor Jaak Panksepp, Professor of Veterinary Science, Washington State University. University Lecture: The Emotional Feelings of Other (Animal Brains: From Cross-Species Nero-Affective Foundations to Novel Psychiatric Therapeutics.
• Professor John Rickford, J.E. Wallace Sterling Professor of Linguistics and the Humanities, Stanford University. University Lecture: Justice for Jeantel (and Trayvon): Fighting Dialect Prejudice in Courtrooms and Beyond.

2015-16

• Professor Thomas H. Jordan, University Southern California and Director, Southern California Earthquake Center. Messenger Lecture: Trial of the L’Aquila Seven: How an Unforetold Seismic Catastrophe Changed Operation Hazard Forecasting.
• Gina Apostol, Novelist and Essayist. University Lecture: The Filipino-American War and the Writing of a Novel: Reflections on History and the Art of Fiction.
• Dr. Amara Lakhous, Bilingual Writer. Messenger Lectures: Lecture 1: Becoming a Writer: The Story of My Dream – Lecture 2: Why is Europe Failing at the Issue of Immigration – Lecture 3: Why Narrating Immigration Through Images is More Effective Today.
• Professor David Kaplan, Johns Hopkins University. University Lecture: Particles and the Nature of All Things.

2014-15

• Professor Allison M. Macfarlane, Professor of Public Policy and International Affairs, George Washington University. University Lecture: The Fukushima Nuclear Accident: Is Nuclear Energy still a Viable Choice for a Carbon-Constrained World?
• Professor Sherman Jackson, University of Southern California.University Lecture: Islam and the American Common Good
• Michael Moss, Author and Investigative Journalist. Messenger Lectures: Lecture 1: A journey into the underbelly of the processed food industry; Lecture 2: You are your own journalist: the evolving ethics of storytelling, Lecture 3: Panel Discussion: Brocolli, The Alpha Vegetable. Hard-core messaging for healthier eating

2014-15

• Professor Stephen Long, University of Illinois. University Lecture: Can We Feed and Fuel the World From Plants by 2050? Scientific vs. Social Barriers.
• Professor Karl Deisseroth, Stanford University. Messenger Lectures: Lecture 1: Illuminating the Brain; Lecture 2: Optical Technologies for Neuroscience; Lecture 3: Optical Investigation of Fully-Assembled Biological Systems.
• Professor Cecilia Vicuna, Poet and multidisciplinary artist. Messenger Lectures & Performances: Quipu and the Quanta of Language; The Poem is the Animal; Awareness is the Art: Artists for Democracy and Other Stories
• Professor Yoko Tawada, Contempory Japanese-German Prose Writer. University Lecture: Multilingual Literary Reading, in German, Japanese, English and Other Surprises.
• Joel Salatin, Polyface Farms, Inc., Virginia.University Lecture: Can We Feed the World?
• David Roman, Department of English and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. Messenger Lectures: Reviving AIDS: On the 2011 Revival of the Normal Heart on Broadway, Relevance, or the Case of Clifford Odets
• Mimi White, Northwestern University University Lecture: Dramas of Domestic Space on HGTV

2013-14

• Leonard Susskind, Director of the Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics, Stanford University. Messenger Lectures: Lecture 1: The Birth of the Universe and the Origin of Laws of Physics; Lecture 2: Black Holes, the Conservation of Information, and the Holographic Principle; Lecture 3: Entanglement: The Hooks that Hold Space Together.
• Carolyn Porco, Team Leader for the Imaging Investigation on the Cassini Saturn Orbiter. University Lecture: A Decade at Saturn.
• Jose Saldivar, Stanford University. University Lecture: Junot Díaz’s Search for Decolonial Aesthetics and Love.
• Patrick Dougherty, Sculptor. Messenger ectures: Lecture 1: Engaging with Plants and Art; Lecture 2: The Art of Horticulture; Lecture 3: Public Space, Public Art; Lecture 4: Hands-On Workshop at Ithaca Children’s Garden.
• Professor Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the University of the Free State. Messenger Lectures: Lecture 1: A South African Model for Practicing Community Engagement; Lecture 2: The Role of Higher Education in the Development of South Africa; Lecture 3: Meeting the Spirit and Letter of Diversity on a South African Campus.

2012-13

• Elaine Romero, University of Wisconsin, Madison.University Lecture: Mother of Exiles: From Concept to Production.
• Ron Suny, University of Michigan. University Lecture: Explaining Genocide: The Fate of the Armenians.
• Stephen Pacala, Princeton University. University Lecture: The Fate of the Land Carbon Sink.
• Jin Li, Brown University. University Lecture: Western and East Asia Cultural Learning Models in the 21st Century.
• Ann Cvetkovich, University of Texas at Austin. University Lecture: The Art of the Queer Counterarchive
• Dr. Peter Nathanielsz, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Center for Pregnancy & Newborn Research. Messenger Lectures: Lecture 1: Health in the post-genomic era – the significance to our lifetime health of developmental programming and gene-environment interactions during development; Lecture 2: Biological milestones: The story of how fetal and neonatal development proceeds and how we become who we are; Lecture 3: Genes development and health: The new lesson for lifetime health – We are our Epigenome not our Genome.
• A.E. Stallings, Poet, Translator, Member, American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Messenger Lectures: Lecture 1: Writing Poetry;Translating Poetry & Reading Poetry; Lecture 2: *A. E. Stallings Reading Poetry Video; Lecture 3: **A.E. Stallings Writing Poetry Video
• Professor Neil Price, Department of Archaeology, University of Aberdeen. Messenger Lectures: Lecture 1: The Children of Ash: Cosmology and the Viking Universe; Lecture 2: Life and Afterlife: Dealing with the Dead in the Viking Age; Lecture 3: The Shape of the Soul: The Viking Mind and the Individual. *Neil Price: The Children of Ash: Cosmology and the Viking University Video
• Professor W. Ian Lipkin, M.D., John Snow Professor of Epidemiology Director, Center for Infection & Immunity, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. University Lecture: Microbe Hunting

2011-12

• Professor David Savran, Distinguished Professor and Vera Mowry Roberts Chair in American Theatre, CUNY Graduate Center. Messenger Lectures: Lecture 1: Branding as Cultural Performance; Lecture 2: Branding American Theatre in Postwar Europe; Lecture 3: The Queer Brand of Broadway: The American Musical from Porter to The Book of Mormon.
• Professor Neco Celik, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Center for Pregnancy & Newborn Research. University Lecture: Film Screening of Urban Guerillas.
• Professor Lori Ginzberg, Professor of History and Women’s Studies, Pennsylvania State University. University Lecture: Rights, Racism, & “A Very Radical Proposition”: Grappling with the Complex Legacies of Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
• Professor Brent Hayes Edwards, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University. University Lecture: Ici Ou Ailleurs/Here or Anyplace Else: Dancing in Translation.
• Professor Ewine van Dishoeck, Professor of Molecular Astrophysics at the University of Leiden, Netherlands. University Lecture: Building Planets and the Ingredients for Life Between the Stars.
• Professor Paul J. Steinhardt, Albert Einstein Professor of Science at Princeton University. University Lecture: Once Upon a Time in Kamchatka: The Extraordinary Search for Natural Quasicrystals.
• Professor Silvio Ferrari, University of Milan. Messenger Lectures: Lecture 1: Religion in the Western Legal Tradition: An Historical Perspective; Lecture 2: Law and Religions: Patterns; Lecture 3: Law and Religions: Problems.
• Professor Tariq Ramadan, Oxford University. Messenger Lectures: Lecture 1: What would Muhammad do?; Lecture 2: Muslims in the West; Lecture 3:  Arab Revolutions: What Next?
• Professor Jas’ Elsner, Humfry Payne Senior Research Fellow in Classical Art at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. University Lecture: Rhetorics of Iconoclasm from Antiquity to Byzantium.
• Professor Raymond Pierrehumbert, Louis Block Professor in Geophysical Sciences and the College, University of Chicago. University Lecture: The Runaway Greenhouse: Could it Happen Here.
• Professor Sheldon Pollock, William B. Ransford Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Columbia University. University Lecture: Philology in Three Dimensions.
• Professor Amihai Mazar, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Messenger Lectures: Lecture 1: Archaeology and Biblical History: The Current State of Scholarship; Lecture 2: The Levant in the Tenth Century: Archaeology and the Alleged Time of David and Solomon; Lecture 3: A Land of Milk and Honey: Archaeological Research on the Unique Apiary at Tel Rehov, Israel.
• Professor Steven Cowley, Director of the Culham Laboratory and the Chief Executive Officer of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). University Lecture: Fusion energy in the 21st century…and beyond!
• Professor Gene Robinson, Swanlund Chair, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. University Lecture: Understanding the Relationship Between Genes and Behavior: Lessons form the Honey Bee.
• Ambassador Edward J. Perkins, Former Ambassador to South Africa. University Lecture: Reflections on a Career in Diplomacy.
• Catharine A. Mackinnon, Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. University Lecture: Women’s Status, Men’s States.

• Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University. University Lecture: Obama’s New Deal, Tea Party Reaction, and America’s Political Future.
• Carol Graham, Sr. Fellow and Charles Robinson Chair, The Brookings Institution. University Lecture: Happiness around the World: The Paradox of Happy Peasant and Miserable Millionaires

2010-11

• Professor Nancy Armstrong, Gilbert, Louis, and Lehrman Professor of English, Duke University. University Lecture: What is Contemporary About Contemporary Fiction?
• Alan Lightman, Writer and Adjunct Professor, MIT. University Lecture: Mr. g, a novel about the creation
• Elizabeth Freeman, Professor of English at the University of California, Davis. University Lecture: Chronic Thinking (In conjunction with: Strategic Ruptures: Feminist Reflections on Crisis Management Series
• Rabbi Greg Epstein, Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University. University Lecture: Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe.
• Professor Sally Kohlstedt, History of Science and Technology, University of Minnesota. University Lecture: Through Books to Nature: Objects and Education in the Progressive Era.
• Dr. Regina Sullivan, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of New York University. University Lecture: Neurobiology of Infant Attachment: Lessons from an Animal Model.
• Professor Susan R. Barry, Professor of Biology and Neuroscience, Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. University Lecture: FIXING MY GAZE: A scientist’s journey into seeing in three dimensions.
• Professor Dana Polan, Professor of Cinema Studies, New York University. University Lecture: Television that Tastes Good: Julia Child, television cooking, and the search for status in America.
• Lord John Krebs, Professor Principal of Jesus College at Oxford. Messenger Lecture: Science and Public Policy Lecture Series: Risk, Uncertainty and Regulation; Is Food Safe?; Facing up to Climate Change
• Nilufer Gole, Professor of Sociology, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France. University Lecture: Islamic Visibility in European Publics: Secularism, Culture, and the Sacred.
• Jay T. Groves, Chemical Biologist, University of California, Berkeley. University Lecture: At the Interface of Physics: Spatial Organization in Chemical Biology.
• Gananath Obeyesekere, Emeritus Professor, Anthropology, Princeton University. University Lecture: Madame Blavatsky’s Visionary Travels and the Work of the Dream-Ego.
• Nima Arkani-Hamed, Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ. Messenger Lectures: The Future of Fundamental Physics; *N. Arkani-Hamed: Setting the stage: Space-time and Quantum Mechanics Video
• Nancy Fraser, Professor of Philosophy and Politics, The New School of Social Research. Messenger Lectures: Lecture 1: The Fictitious Commodity: Fount of Capitalist Crisis in the 21st Century; Lecture 2: The Market in Nature: Seeds and Offshoots of Capitalist Crisis; Lecture 3: The Wages of Care Body and Soul of Capitalist Crisis”

2009-10

• Gregor Schoeler, Emeritus Professor, Islamic Studies, University of Basel. Messenger Lectures: Lecture 1: Miracles in Islam; Lecture 2: The Arabic Divine Comedy – The 11th Century Epistle of Forgiveness of al-Ma’arri; Lecture 3: Memory and Literacy – The oral and the written word in early Islam (8th Century)
• William Julius Wilson, Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor at Harvard University. University Lecture: More Than Just Race, Being Black and Poor in the Inner City.
• A. James Hudspeth, Professor at the Rockefeller University in New York and the Head of the Laboratory of Sensory Neuroscience. University Lecture: How Hearing Happens.
• Martin Kemp, Emeritus Professor, History of Art at Oxford University. University Lecture: Structural Intuitions in Art, Science and Technology.
• Phillip Lopate, John Cranford Adams Chair & Professor of English, Hofstra University, New York. University Lecture: The Art of Ambivalence: Self-Doubt and Changing One’s Mind and Books, Movies and Cities.
• Robert J. Richards, Fishbein Professor of the History of Science, Departments of History, Philosophy, Psychology, University of Chicago. University Lecture: Darwin and Haeckel.
• Marga Gomez, Award Winning Playwright, Actor and Humorist. University Lecture: Long Island Iced Latina
• Susan Michaelis, Professor of Cell Biology, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. University Lecture: Cell Biology in the Translational Era: From Mating in Yeast to Aging in Humans
• E. Patrick Johnson, Professor, Chair, and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Performance Studies and Professor in African American Studies at Northwestern University. University ecture: Pouring Tea: Black Gay Men of the South Tell Their Stories.
• Elinor Ostrom, Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science at Indiana University. University Lecture: Collective Action and the Commons: What Have We Learned?
• Nancy Fraser, Professor of Philosophy and Politics, The New School of Social Research. Messenger Lecture: Theorizing the Great Transformation of the 21st Century.
• George Bass, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Texas A&M University. Messenger Lectures: Lecture 1: The Birth of Nautical Archaeology; Lecture 2: Early Mediterranean Seafaring; Lecture 3: A Medieval Puzzle: The Glass Wreck at Serce Limani.

2008-09

• Paul Griffiths, Author and Music Critic, Performer and Librettis. Messenger Lecture: Restoring the Lost, Retrieving the Unwritten and Relinquishing the Unwritable.
• Scott de la Hunta, ’84Research Fellow, ARTI Group, Amsterdam School of the Arts. University Lecture:
  The Choreographic Resource: Technologies for Interpreting Dance.
• Sheilia Jasanoff, Professor of Science & Technology Studies, Harvard University. Messenger Lecture: After Enlightenment: Rethinking Science’s Place in Democracy.
• Garry Wills, Professor, Northwestern University, Pulitzer Prize Winning Author. University Lecture: Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858), One Hundred Fifty Years Later (2008).
• Marita Sturken, Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University.University Lecture: Consuming Security: Defensive Design in the Comfort Culture of Everyday Life.
• Margaret Wertheim, Science Writer and Exhibition Curator, Lecture: Reefer Mathness: Confronting Coral Reef Destruction and Global Warming through Mathematics, Collective Art Practice and Crochet
• John A. Pickett, Professor Head of Department of Biological Chemistry at Rothamsted Research. Lecture: Developing plant-derived stress signals for new crop protection strategies.
• Nidhal Guessoum, Professor of Physics & American University of Sharjah. Lecture: Science and the Arab Society: A Critical Survey and Assessment and The Anthropic Principle Today: Scientific, Philosophical, and Religious Perspectives.
• Michael Geyer, Samuel N. Harper Professor of German and European History, University of Chicago. Lecture: Millennial Militarism: Sovereignty Panics in the Contemporary United States.
• Ira Mellman, Vice President of Research Oncology & Genentech, Inc.  Lecture: From the Halls of Academia to the Shores of Industry: Basic Cell Biology for Human Benefit

2007-08

• Anselm Haverkamp, Professor of English and Director of the Poetics & Theory Program, New York University. University Lecture: To Conceive of, in Pictures: Episodes from the History of Knowledge.
• Robert Duke, Professor in Music & Human Learning, University of Texas, Austin. University ecture: Why Don’t Students Learn What We Think We Teach.
• Nancy Fraser, Professor of Philosophy and Politics, The New School of Social Research. Messenger Lecture: Disputing the Subject of Justice: National Citizenry, Global Humanity, or Transnational Community of Risk?
• Michel Balinski, Professor Emeritus, Ecole Polytechnique, Paris. Messenger Lectures: Lecture 1: How to apportion fairly: Aristotle, the Talmud, the U.S. Congress and kidney transplants; Lecture 2: How to elect and to rank: Overcoming the paradoxes of social choice, electing a President of France and ranking wines; Lecture 3: How to eliminate gerrymandering: A new approach to representation, its realization in Zurich and its application to the U.S. Congress.
• Mandyam Srinivasan, Professor of Visual Neuroscience, Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland. University Lecture: Small Brains, Smart Minds: Vision, Navigation, and ‘Cognition’ in Honeybees and Applications to Robotics.
• Speciosa Wandira former Ugandan Vice President. University Lecture: Achieving Freedom from Hunger, Poverty, and Poor Health in Sub-Saharan Africa: Priorities for Research and Public Policy.

2006-07

• Steven Weinberg, Nobel Laureate, Holder of the Josey Chair in Science and Professor of Physics & Astronomy, University of Texas at Austin. Messenger Lectures: 1:The Invention of Science: Poetry and Technology, 2: The Invention of Science: Mathematics and Philosophy, 3: A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology. 

2004-05

• Sir Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, University of Cambridge, UK. Messenger Lecture: Science and Survival in the 21st Century

2003-04

2002-03

• Francis Fukuyama, Johns Hopkins University. Messenger Lecture:   The State After September 11.

2001-02

• Janet Halley, Harvard Law School. MessengerLecture: Sexuality Harassment/Same Sex Marriage

2000-01

• Norman Myers Consultant in Environment & Development. Messenger Lecture: Environmental and Conservation Issues for the New Millenium.
• David J.P. Barker, University of Southampton. University Lecture: Early Life Experiences and Adult Disease