Presenting this spring’s offerings from the Graduate Council Lectures and the Tanner Lectures on Human Values. These lectures (and the Tanner seminar) are free and open to the public.

Leon Botstein — Tanner Lectures on Human Values

The History of Listening
Lecture I: Music Literacy in the 19th Century
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
4:10 p.m. to 6:15 p.m., Toll Room, Alumni House

Lecture II: The Recorded Age
Thursday, March 10, 2011
4:10 p.m. to 6:15 p.m., Toll Room, Alumni House

Seminar and Discussion with commentators
Friday, March 11, 2011
4:10 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., Toll Room, Alumni House
with commentary by Jann Pasler, Michael P. Steinberg, and John Toews

Leon Botstein
Leon Botstein (Photo: Steve Sherman)

Leon Botstein has served as the President of Bard College since 1975 where he is also the Leon Levy Professor in the Arts and Humanities. In addition to his academic roles he is the music director and principal conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra, and the music director and conductor laureate of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. An advocate of performing neglected or overlooked works in an effort to expand the repertoire, Dr. Botstein is known for his revivals of rare French and German operas of the late 19th and 20th centuries. He is the founding artistic director of the Bard Music Festival, which for 21 seasons has explored the musical and cultural worlds of composers through orchestral and chamber concerts, recitals, and symposia. As a music hisorian, Botstein has written over 100 articles and reviews and has authored several books, including Jefferson’s Children: Education and the Promise of American Culture (1997), and is the editor of The Musical Quarterly.

Sponsored by the University of California, Berkeley. Visit the Tanner Lectures website for more information.

Robert Reich — Barbara Weinstock Memorial Lectures on the Morals of Trade

Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future
March 16, 2011 — 4:10 p.m.
Chevron Auditorium, International House, 2299 Piedmont Avenue
Limited seating. Be sure to check out the live webcast at www.grad.berkeley.edu/lectures.

Robert Reich
Robert Reich (Photo: Michael Collopy)

Robert B. Reich, was our nation’s 22nd Secretary of Labor. An economic advisor to President Obama’s transition team, Reich is the Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at University of California, Berkeley. He has served in four national administrations including those of Presidents Ford, Carter, Clinton, and Obama.  Time Magazine named Reich one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the 20th century and the Wall Street Journal named him as one of the ten most influential business thought leaders. Reich has written thirteen books, including the recent best-seller, Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future (2010), as well as The Future of Success (2000), Locked in the Cabinet (1997), and The Work of Nations (1991), the last of which has been translated into 22 languages. His articles have appeared in the New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal.  He is also a founding editor of The American Prospect magazine, and Chairman of the citizen group Common Cause.

Sponsored by the Graduate Council. Further information is available on the Weinstock Lectures website.

John Witte Jr. — Jefferson Memorial Lectures

Sharia in the West?  What Place for Religious Legal Systems in America and Other Democracies
April 21, 2011— 4:10 p.m.
Chevron Auditorium, International House, 2299 Piedmont Avenue

John Witte, Jr.
John Witte, Jr.

John Witte, Jr. is a specialist in legal history, marriage law, and religious liberty. A prolific writer, Witte has published 180 articles, 13 journal symposia, and 25 books (translated into ten languages). His publications include four recent titles from Cambridge University Press: The Reformation of Rights: Law, Religion, and Human Rights in Early Modern Calvinism (2007); Christianity and Law (2008); The Sins of the Fathers: The Law and Theology of Illegimacy Reconsidered (2009); and Christianity and Human Rights (2010). He currently edits two major book series, “Studies in Law and Religion,” and “Religion, Marriage, and Family.” With major funding from the Pew, Ford, Lilly, Luce, and McDonald foundations, Witte has directed 12 major international projects on democracy, human rights, and religious liberty, and on marriage, family, and children. These projects have collectively yielded more than 160 new volumes and 250 public forums around the world. Witte is Jonas Robitscher Professor of Law and Alonzo L. McDonald Distinguished Service Professor at Emory University. He also serves as director of Emory’s Center for the Study of Law and Religion, the leading scholarly center on this topic, involving 95 Emory faculty and 1,600 scholars from around the world.

Sponsored by the Graduate Council. Further information is available on the Jefferson Lectures website.

Steven Squyres — Charles M. and Martha Hitchcock Lectures

Lecture I: Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity, and the Exploration of the Red Planet
Monday, May 2, 2011
2:10 p.m.,* Chevron Auditorium, International House, 2299 Piedmont Avenue

Lecture II: The Future of Planetary Exploration
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
2:10 p.m.,* Chevron Auditorium, International House, 2299 Piedmont Avenue

* Note earlier start time than most lectures in this series

Steven Squyres
Steven Squyres

Steven Squyres is best known for his studies of the history and distribution of water on Mars and the possible existence and habitability of a liquid water ocean on Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. His research focuses on planetary sciences, with particular interest on the robotic exploration of planetary surfaces, geophysics and tectonics of icy satellites, tectonics of Venus, and planetary gamma-ray and x-ray spectroscopy. Former Chair of the NASA Space Science Advisory Committee, Squyres has participated in a number of NASA’s planetary spaceflight missions, including the Voyager mission to Jupiter and Saturn, the Magellan mission to Venus, and the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission. Spearheading a team of over 3,000 people, Squyres was the principle scientist behind the $800 million Mars Exploration Rover Project (MER). He dreamed up the mission of exploring the Red Planet in 1987, and turned it into a reality by successfully landing the Rovers on Mars’s surface in 2004. In his 2005 book, Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity and the Exploration of the Red Planet, Squyres presents an in-depth look at managing one of the most remarkable space missions of our time.

Sponsored by the Graduate Council. Further information is available on the Hitchcock Lectures website.