Past Salons
Explore past Dean's Salon Events offering valuable insights into diverse academic discussions and thought-provoking presentations by distinguished speakers.
Lawrence Lessig: “America: Compromised Studies in Institutional Corruption”
“Institutional corruption” is the product of legal, even currently ethical influences that undermine the effectiveness of an institution, especially by weakening its public trust. Lawrence Lessig explores the application of this concept to a wide range of important public institutions with the aim to establish both the distinctiveness of the conception and its particular relevance to modern American life.
Amitav Ghosh: “The Great Derangement”
Over four lectures, author Amitav Ghosh highlights the literature, history, and politics of climate change and the role of writers in combating the issue.
Lecture 1 - Fiction I
September 29, 2015
Lecture 2 - Fiction II
September 30, 2015
Lecture 3 - History
October 6, 2015
Lecture 4 - Politics
October 7, 2015
Mario Vargas Llosa: “The Writer and His Demons”
Over four lectures, Nobel Prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa offers a fascinating account of his own creative process.
Jeanne Gang: “Mining the City”
Over three lectures, acclaimed architect and urban visionary Jeanne Gang explores the concept of “Mining the City” to create the built environment.
Lecture 1 - Material World
April 10, 2018
Lecture 2 - The Uneven City
April 17, 2018
Lecture 3 - Mutualism in the Anthropocene
April 24, 2018
Teju Cole: “Coming to Our Senses”
During the course of three lectures, acclaimed author, critic, and photographer Teju Cole explored what it means to be a sensing being. Through personal accounts and literary examples, Cole examined how the physical senses–and not only the traditional five of sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch–inform our experiences, open us up to epiphany, and shape our ethics.
Lecture 1 - Experience
April 8, 2019
Lecture 2 - Epiphany
April 15, 2019
Danielle Allen: “Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus”
During the course of four lectures, Danielle Allen, the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University and Director of Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, explored the distinctive challenges posed to democracy by the emergency conditions brought by a global pandemic. She also described the specific resources the U.S. Constitutional system has for achieving resilience in the face of this existential threat.
Ian Bostridge: “Musical Identities”
Acclaimed tenor Ian Bostridge looked at how classical music can express the inexpressible: the nature of existence; the fluidity of identity; the inevitability of death. Through three Berlin Family Lectures focused on “Musical Identities,” Bostridge explored and evaluated some of the works at the very center of the classical vocal repertoire, asking how they construct identities—historically, poetically, and musically.
Lecture 1 - Identity in Performance
Sunday, April 11, 1 to 2:30 p.m. CDT
Claudia Rankine: "Meanwhile"
Lecture 1 - Meanwhile in the Work of Artist Jennifer Packer
April 6, 2022, 6 to 7:30 p.m. CT
Lecture 2 - Meanwhile in the Work of Artist and Filmmaker Titus Kaphar
April 13, 2022, 6 to 7:30 p.m. CT
Lecture 3 - Meanwhile: A Work in Progress
April 14, 2022, 6 to 7:30 p.m. CT
Mary Beard: "What Can We Learn from the Classics?"
Acclaimed classicist Mary Beard challenged what the Classics mean by exploring the fun, the dangers, and the heady uncertainties and how they relate and don’t pertain to the present. Through three lectures Beard compared the art of antiquity to modern times and the central role of the humanities in facing up to the dilemmas of modernity. She introduced a cast of characters from ancient gladiators to Marxist theorists and 20th-century poets.
Lecture 1 - A Piece of Cake
April 20, 2023, 6 to 7:30 p.m. CDT