Lecture Series

In keeping with the Ethics/Religion and Society Focus' purpose of encouraging the ethical and religious analysis of socially significant issues, Xavier University has established a lecture series to bring to campus prominent intellectuals and public leaders having diverse perspectives on a specific issue. The speakers present a public lecture or presentation, followed by discussion and a reception. A discussion with Xavier faculty, staff, and students is usually held on the following day.

View prior Lecture Series events »

E/RS Lecture Series 2009-2010

Ecology and Sustainability: Food and Agriculture

Michael Pollan, September 27, 2009, 1:00 pm
“In Defense of Food: The Omnivore’s Solution”
Co-sponsored by the Cincinnati Public Library

Michael Pollan is a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine and the Knight Professor of Journalism at the University of California—Berkeley. He is the nationally recognized author of numerous books including In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto (2008) and the award-winning Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (2006). Prior to the November election, he published an open letter in the Times to the “Farmer-in-Chief” of the United States, claiming that agricultural and food policies will become the next administration’s most important agenda item even though they figured little in the national election campaigns.


Vandana Shiva, October 28, 2009, 7:00 pm
“Soil Not Oil:  Food Security in times of Climate Change”
Co-sponsored by the Brueggeman Center and the Women's Center

Vandana Shiva is a physicist, author, and environmental activist from India. She has worked for changes in agricultural and food production systems, calling for greater protection of indigenous rights to biodiversity, particularly for seeds of food crops. She also has played an important role in the ecofeminist movement, calling for greater participation of women in agriculture as a means to achieve sustainability. Among her books are Biopiracy: the Plunder of Nature and Knowledge (1997), Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply, and Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seed (2007).


David Montgomery, March 14, 2010, 7:00 pm
“Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations”
Co-sponsored by the University of Cincinnati's President's Advisory Council
on Environment and Sustainability

David Montgomery is a 2008 MacArthur Fellow. He is a geologist at the University of Washington described by the MacArthur Foundation as someone who is “making fundamental contributions to our understanding of the geophysical forces that determine landscape evolution and of how our use of soils and rivers has shaped civilizations past and present.” He will be speaking about his second book Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations (2007), which explores the crucial role of soil fertility in the course of ancient and contemporary societies.


Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson and Gene Logsdon, April 11, 2010, 7:00 pm
“An Informal Conversation”
Co-sponsored by the University of Cincinnati's President's Advisory Council
on Environment and Sustainability and the Brueggeman Center for Dialogue

Wendell Berry is a Kentucky farmer and writer, described by the New York Review of Books as “perhaps the great moral essayist of our day.” He is the author of more than forty novels, anthologies of essays, and books of poetry that use his intimate knowledge of his Kentucky River farm home as the starting point for eloquent and penetrating critiques of the modern agricultural system and its consequences for communities, families, and politics. Wes Jackson is the President and co-founder of the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, a research and demonstration center dedicated to developing polyculture perennial grains as an alternative to our current annual grain monocultures. Gene Logsdon farms in northern Ohio and has written numerous books and magazine articles on the subject of small farms, rural living, cottage farming, homesteading, alternative farming practices, organic gardening, composting, aquaculture, and other types of alternative agriculture. 
This event will be held in the Cintas Center Arena.  Complimentary tickets with assigned seats will be distributed at the doors, which will open at 6:00 pm.  No tickets will be distributed in advance of the event.
 

Wes Jackson, April 12, 2010, 1:30 pm
"The Necessity and Possibility of an Agriculture Where Nature is the Measure"

Wes Jackson is president and co-founder of the Land Institute in Salina, Kan., a research and demonstration center dedicated to developing polyculture perennial grains as an alternative to our current annual grain monocultures.

All lectures are held in the Cintas Center and are free and open to the public.