Please join us for the Fall 2009 Speakers series!
Susan F. Beegel“Hemingway's Farewell to Arms”
September 3, Milner Library Sixth Floor, 6:30 p.m.
Susan F. Beegel holds a Ph.D. in literature from Yale University and is editor of The Hemingway Review, a scholarly journal on the work and life of Ernest Hemingway, published by the University of Idaho and the Ernest Hemingway Foundation. An adjunct associate professor of English at the University of Idaho, she is the author or editor of four books, including two on Ernest Hemingway, and has published more than 50 articles and book chapters on various aspects of American literature and history. She has been a consultant to the National Endowment for the Arts "Big Read" series on A Farewell to Arms as well as the PBS documentary, "Ernest Hemingway: Rivers to the Sea," and has appeared live on national television to discuss Hemingway on C-Span's American Writers series.
Steven D. Levitt“Freakonomics”
September 17, Braden Auditorium, 7 p.m.
Steven D. Levitt is a full professor in the University of Chicago's economics department and recipient of the American Economic Association’s prestigious John Bates Clark Medal.
Levitt has an enormous curiosity and is set on course by personal experiences and the incongruities he sees in everyday life. He is an intuitionist. He sifts through a pile of data to find a story that no one else has found and devises ways to measure an effect that veteran economists have declared un-measurable.
Levitt published Freakonomics in 2005, which instantly became a cultural phenomenon. Hailed by critics and readers alike, it went on to spend more than two years on the New York Times bestseller list, having sold more than 3 million copies around the world, in more than 30 languages. He is a brilliant but uncomplicated man who uses simple questions to reach startling conclusions. The Wall Street Journal has said “If Indiana Jones were an economist, he'd be Steven Levitt,” he has shown other economists just how well their tools can make sense of the real world.
Read Steven D Levitt's full biography
Sponsored by the Provost Office
Free and open to the public
Morgan Spurlock“An Evening with Morgan Spurlock”
September 30, Braden Auditorium, 7 p.m.
Academy Award® nominated director, Morgan Spurlock is the creator and producer of FX’s critically acclaimed and award winning series, 30 Days (Season 1 and Season 2). Spurlock has an amazing career spanning film, non-fiction literature, television and theatre. His first feature film, Super Size Me, was released in 2004 and went on to become the sixth highest grossing box office documentary of all time. This comedic and telling documentary centering on Spurlock’s experiment to eat only fast food for a month was named to more than 35 Top Ten lists in 2004 and received an Oscar nomination, the Writers Guild of America Best Documentary Screenplay Award and Best Director prizes at the Sundance Film Festival and the Edinburgh Film Festival. The DVD was voted Best Documentary of the Year by the Video Software Dealers Association in 2005, and an "educationally enhanced" version was released for schools, health institutions, parents groups and the general public complete with interactive guides, games and lesson plans to help children, educators and families understand how to make healthy choices.
Shortly after the theatrical opening of the film, Spurlock released his first non-fiction book, Don’t Eat This Book. The book picked up where the film leaves off, diving even deeper into the psyche of a Super-Sized nation. Both the film and the book continue to influence public behavior and policy makers on the topic of fast food and obesity in America. Even McDonald’s restaurants dropped the "super sizing" from their menu -six weeks after the film premiered at Sundance. The film and the book continue to make an impact on the way the world sees fast food.
Read Morgan Spurlock's full biography
Sponsored by University Program Board
Free and open to the public
Louise Erdrich“Q&A with Louise Erdrich”
October 22, Milner Library Main Floor, 3 p.m.
Louise Erdrich is the author of twelve novels as well as volumes of poetry, children's books, and a memoir of early motherhood. Her novel Love Medicine won the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse was a finalist for the National Book Award. She lives in Minnesota with her daughters and is the owner of Birchbark Books, a small independent bookstore.
Sponsored by Ames/Milner Visiting Author Program
Free and open to the public
Rafe Esquith“Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire”
November 16, Braden Auditorium, 7 p.m.
A once-in-a-lifetime educator, Rafe Esquith may be the most inspiring school teacher in America. He's been called "a modern day Thoreau" by Newsday, "a genius and a saint" by The New York Times, and "the most interesting and influential classroom teacher in the country" by The Washington Post. For the past two decades, Esquith has taught fifth-graders at a public school in a Los Angeles neighborhood plagued by guns, gangs and violence. His exceptional classroom at Hobart Elementary -- known simply as Room 56 -- is unlike any other in the country.
Esquith's students are mostly immigrants or children of immigrants, living in poverty, and learning English as a second language. Yet, under his tutelage, they voluntarily come to class at 6:30 in the morning, and often stay until five in the afternoon. They learn math, reading and science. But they also play Vivaldi, perform Shakespeare, often score in the top 1 percent on standardized tests, and go on to attend the best universities. For his near-heroic work, Esquith is the only teacher to be awarded the president's National Medal of the Arts. He has received the National Teacher of the Year Award, and won accolades from Oprah, the Queen and the Dalai Lama. He's also written a bestselling book, Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire, and been featured, along with his students, in the PBS documentary The Hobart Shakespeareans.
Sponsored by the College of Education
Free and open to the public
Soledad O'Brien“Diversity: On TV, Behind the Scenes and In Our Lives”
January 22, Bone Student Center Brown Ball Room, 6 p.m.
Soledad O'Brien is an anchor and special correspondent for CNN: Special Investigations Unit, reporting hour-long documentaries throughout the year and filing in-depth series on the most important ongoing and breaking news stories for all major CNN programs. She also covers political news as part of CNN’s “Best Political Team on Television.”
O'Brien came to CNN from NBC News where she had anchored the network’s Weekend Today since July 1999. During that time, she contributed reports for the weekday Today Show and weekend editions of NBC Nightly News and covered such notable stories as John F. Kennedy Jr.’s plane crash and the school shootings in Colorado and Oregon. In 2003, she covered the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster and later anchored NBC's weekend coverage of the war in Iraq. Additionally, in 1998, she traveled to Cuba to cover Pope John Paul II’s historic visit.
She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. O’Brien is a graduate of Harvard University with a degree in English and American literature.
Read Soledad O'Brien's full biography
Sponsored by the Provost Office
For ticket information contact (309) 438-8790
For a complete list of events, check out the University Calendar.
© Illinois State University • An equal opportunity/affirmative action university encouraging diversity.• Privacy Notice • Identity Standards • Appropriate Use Policy • For questions, contact us.
