Baltimore Speakers Series
Stevenson University has sponsored the Baltimore Speakers Series since 2006, bringing national and international political, social, scientific, literary, and thought leaders to the Greater Baltimore Community. Past speakers have included author Amy Tan, First Lady Laura Bush, humorist Garrison Keillor, zoologist Jane Goodall, political movers-and-shakers Karl Rove and Howard Dean, and acclaimed novelist Salman Rushdie.
View our complete List of Past Speakers online.
Series Subscriptions
All talks begin at 8 p.m. and are held at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore City. Tickets are sold by a series subscription only and are not available for individual speakers. Subscriptions for the series range from $265 to $395 depending upon choice of seating. Tickets for the 2012-2013 series can be ordered by phone at 410-783-8000 or online at www.BaltimoreSpeakersSeries.org.
Baltimore Speaker Series Professor Prologues
To enhance your enjoyment of the Baltimore Speakers Series and give you further insight into our speakers, Stevenson University professors offer their perspectives in a Professor’s Prologue.
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Nando Parrado: Constructing Meaning from Tragedy and Survival in the Andes by John Rosicky, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of the Human Services Department |
The world can be a dangerous and unforgiving place. Most of us prefer not to be reminded of this stark reality, but those who are thrust into the fire and emerge unbroken show us the existence of surprising and untapped reservoirs of courage and fortitude. Neitzsche famously said, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” This idea that hardship builds character and toughness goes back at least as far as the Spartans. Kurt Hahn founded Outward Bound in part to give young seamen the mental toughness to survive harsh conditions at sea by teaching confidence, tenacity, and resilience. Yet few of us willingly seek the kinds of experiences that could act as the crucible to temper our inner metal. Certainly, Nando Parrado did not.
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President Vicente Fox: A Learning-Directed Leader by Dr. Anna Kayes, Professor of Business Administration |
The transition from business executive to statesman is difficult, and few make the transition successfully. Those few business leaders who achieve the title of statesman do so because they practice learning-directed leadership.
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When Facebook named Erskine Bowles to its board, Mr. Zuckerberg said about this choice: “Erskine has held important roles in government, academia and business which have given him insight into how to build organizations and navigate complex issues.” Indeed, Erskine Bowles’s distinguished career has left its mark in all three areas.
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P.W. Singer: At the Crossroads |
“Of arms and the man I sing,” famously penned Virgil in his epic poem the Aeneid (c. 30-19 BC), and for centuries since (and, to be sure, even before) poets, novelists, historians, scholars, politicians, and ordinary citizens have contemplated that crossroads of human existence and armed conflict that so intrigued and entranced the Roman poet. What exactly is (or should be) the proper relationship between humanity and warfare? How do the two affect each other? Can the two be divorced from each other and, if not, why not? To what extent does warfare have a positive or negative impact on humankind? These are but a few of the questions encountered at that crossroads.
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Lisa Ling: Reporting the Untold Stories of Our America |
Lisa Ling once said, “As a journalist, I have seen things that have scarred me. I have interacted with people who have haunted me. I have heard things that have pained me. As a result, I have long struggled with the notion of faith... Whenever I start to blame God for what I encounter in the world, I stop and remind myself that maybe it is I who should be doing more. We get so hung up on the notion of success that we can easily forget about being of service to others.”
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Jeannette Walls: Whether Non-Fiction or Fiction, Her Stories Are Unforgettable by Stephanie Verni, Assistant Professor of Business Communication |
Writers often claim they are born to write, but only the best writers can tell a compelling story worth reading, no matter what the reaction to the subject matter may be. Shocking tell-all celebrity and political memoirs have captured the public’s attention. In fact, memoirs have accounted for the spike in non-fiction book sales in recent years. Then, just when you think you’ve heard every story imaginable, along comes a book from a journalist that gives readers pause and leaves them scratching their heads, saying, “This can’t be the story of someone’s life.”In fact, it is.
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President William Jefferson Clinton: The Most Interesting Man in the World? |
Everyone knows the first speaker this season is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s husband. And what was he before that? Most of you will recall President Bill Clinton’s two terms in national office, the roiling politics, the Senate acquittal, the rise from “it’s the economy, stupid” to budget surplus, the saxophone. And before that, there were the terms as attorney general and then governor of Arkansas. Wikipedia will recap all of this history nicely for you.
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Reflections on Tom Brokaw’s Greatest Generation |
In his role both as a television journalist and best-selling author, Tom Brokaw led the charge in bringing attention to the feats of a heroic generation before it passed on to the graveyard of history. His considerable influence led to wider recognition of those whose sacrifices saved the world from forces of great evil and chaos. For most of us, this was our parents’ or grandparents’ generation, and we generally took their achievements for granted—that was an easy way because they were, after all, very humble and mostly did not want to relive their wartime experiences. His conclusions derive from a renewed clarity not only about their accomplishments but also about the significance of the World War II epoch itself.
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General Stanley McChrystal: Context for a Commander |
General Stanley McChrystal is not defined by his rank. He is defined, instead, by past choices and his life’s experience. In the most traditional of all branches in the U.S. Army, Infantry, McChrystal pursued an extremely non-traditional career. Unlike other West Point graduates, McChrystal did not climb the career ladder by choosing low risk assignments that would impress promotion boards. Instead, he chose to be a leader of light infantry and “special operators” at a time when such units were considered nothing more than exciting specialty assignments. Promotion boards believed such units had little to offer in terms of the leadership training Army officers would need to fight a war with the Soviet Union. In spite of the prevailing attitude in the Army, McChrystal devoted himself to the development of light infantry and special operations doctrine. No one realized at the time that McChrystal, ever the maverick, was creating a highly trained, hard hitting, brutally effective combat force that would become the model for U.S. power projection in the post-9/11 world.
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Azar Nafisi: Resisting Tyranny through Literature |
Seven years ago, after reading the bestselling memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran, I heard the author, Azar Nafisi, give the keynote address at the annual conference of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. She was more physically striking than I had anticipated: her face was somewhat angular; her lipstick intensely red; her shawl—am I remembering correctly?—royal blue; her jewelry, bigger and brighter. But she was as emotionally riveting in person as she was in her book: her passion was bracing; her authenticity, compelling; and her intelligence, keen. She held me spellbound in a swirl of images and ideas. I found what she said vitally important. And I’d like to explain why I think you will too.
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“What’s for Dinner?”: How What We Eat Has a Deep Effect on Our World by Joseph Matanoski, Ph. D., Associate Professor of Biology |
“What’s for dinner?” How did such a simple question become the source of so much angst and confusion? There was a time when decisions about what to eat were simple and straightforward. What we ate was what we could obtain locally, was abundant and fresh. Now, the cornucopia is stuffed with a diversity of items from across the nation and around the world and seemingly anything that pleases our cosmopolitan palates can be obtained. However, in the last two decades we have begun to awaken to the consequences of our food decisions. What we choose to put on the table has ramifications far beyond pleasing our taste buds and includes nutritional, environmental, ethical, and cultural effects.
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