2023
Roberto Lovato
Journalist, Humanitarian, Professor at University of Nevada-Las Vegas
“A Conversation on Human Rights and Activism"
2019
Jacquelyn Dowd Hall
Julia Cherry Spruill Professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
“Sisters and Rebels: A Struggle for the Soul of America”
2016
Bryan Doerries
Brooklyn-based writer, director, and translator
“The Theater of War: How Theater is Used in the Service of Therapy”
2015
Bart D. Ehrman
James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
“Misquoting Jesus: Scribes Who Changed the Scriptures and Readers Who May Never Know”
2013
Stephen J. Greenblatt
Cogan University Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University
“The Humanities and the Toleration of Intolerable Ideas”
2012
Anne Fadiman
Francis Writer in Residence,Yale University
“Using Bacon as Bookmarks: How Readers Treat Their Books”
2011
Tony Kushner
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter
“A Conversation with Claire Gleitman, Professor and Chair, Department of English”
2010
Martha Nussbaum
Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, The Law School, University of Chicago
“Same-sex Marriage and Constitutional Law: Beyond the Politics of Disgust”
2008
David Zarefsky
Owen L. Coon Professor of Communication Studies, Northwestern University
“Abraham Lincoln and the House Divided: A Study in Public Argument and Politics”
2007
Peter Singer
Philosopher
“The Ethics of What We Eat”“The Ethics of What We Eat”
2004–06
Various speakers
“Celebration of the Humanities”
2003
Salman Rushdie
British Indian novelist
“Step across This Line: An Evening with Salman Rushdie”
2002
Karen Armstrong
British author and commentator on comparative religion
“The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam”
2001
Art Spiegelman
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and artist
“Comix 101: A Tour of the Evolution of Comics”
2000
Robert Pinsky
Poet laureate of the United States
“The Sounds of Poetry”