Events

^{Michael Pollan Opens E/RS Lecture Series}

Author Michael Pollan speaks on “In Defense of Food: The Omnivore’s Solution” on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009, from 1:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m. at Xavier University’s Cintas Center. The event is free and open to the public. The lecture is co-sponsored by the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.

For the past 20 years, Pollan has been writing books and articles about the places where human and natural worlds intersect: food, agriculture, gardens, drugs and architecture. He is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and a professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. A number of Pollan’s books address food and food production, including The Omnivore's Dilemma.

The purpose of the Ethics/Religion and Society program is to encourage ethical and/or religious analysis of socially significant issues. For 2009-2010, the focus is “Food and Agriculture” under the general three-year theme of “Ecology and Sustainability.” Speakers will offer reflections on various issues associated with sustaining human life through food production. The lecture series is only a part of the Ethics/Religion and Society program, whose excellence has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Humanities, one of the nation’s most prestigious organizations. The NEH awarded the program a challenge grant of $400,000, requiring the University to raise an additional $1.6 million in order to establish an endowed chair, purchase library and computer resources, support a lecture series and provide continuing education opportunities for faculty.