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Upcoming events at Monmouth College Oct. 21-24

Dorrien to give Thompson Lecture; 'Black Classicists' exhibit to open; political consultant Baughman to visit campus

by Barry McNamara

Monmouth, Ill. (10/17/2019) —

Author, scholar Gary Dorrien to deliver Monmouth's Thompson Lecture on Oct. 24

An accomplished author and scholar who has been called "the preeminent social ethicist in North America today" will present the next Samuel M. Thompson Memorial Lecture at Monmouth College.

Gary Dorrien will deliver the talk at 7 p.m. Oct. 24 in the Morgan Room in Poling Hall. Titled "Democratic Socialism: Black & White, Christian & Not, Then & Now," the lecture is free and open to the public.

"Gary is a towering figure in the field and a dynamic speaker," said Monmouth philosophy and religious studies professor Dan Ott. "The focus on democratic socialism as put forward both by religious and secular thinkers is likely to be quite relevant to some of the debates going on among Democratic presidential candidates."

Dorrien teaches social ethics, theology and philosophy of religion as the Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary and as a professor of religion at Columbia University. He is the author of 20 books and more than 300 articles that range across the fields of social ethics, philosophy, theology, political eco¬nomics, social and political theory, religious history, cultural criticism, and intellectual history.

Several of Dorrien's books have been honored, including his recent work Breaking White Supremacy: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Black Social Gospel, which won the American Library Association's Choice Award. The book has been described as "intellectual history at its finest ... a triumph of careful scholarship, rigorous argument, clear prose, unblinking judgments and groundbreaking conclusions. ... Indispensable."

The Thompson Lecture is annually presented in memory of the legendary Sam Thompson, who graduated from Monmouth College in 1924. Thompson taught philosophy at the College for 46 years after earning his Ph.D. at Princeton University in 1931.

The lecture series was made possible by Thompson's two daughters, the late Jean Thompson Follett '51 and Roberta Thompson Fassett '56, and the College's Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies.


'Black Classicists' exhibit to open at Monmouth College with Oct. 21 reception

An exhibit featuring African American men and women who blazed a trail in higher education will once again be on display at Monmouth College from Oct. 21 through the end of November.

On the opening day of the "Black Classicists" exhibit, it will be on display in Mellinger Commons in the Center for Science and Business, where an opening reception will be held from 5-6:30 p.m. The reception will feature student performances including original poems by Abierre Minor '21 and Nathan Santiago '22, both of Chicago, and Catie Bozarth '22 of Pekin, Ill.

The exhibition, which Monmouth originally hosted in 2004, will move to Hewes Library on Oct. 22. The reception and exhibition are free and open to the public.

Created by classical scholar Michele Valerie Ronnick of Wayne State University in Detroit, the exhibition focuses on the lives of 15 African American men and women who taught Greek and Latin at the college level and whose academic accomplishments helped pave the way for future generations of African Americans entering U.S. universities.

"With them," said Ronnick, "begins the serious study and teaching of philology (the study of language) by African Americans. All who study language and literature in the U.S. today, be it Italian, Swahili, Sanskrit, English or Arabic, trace the origin of their disciplines to the men and women featured in this photo installation."

Featured African American academics in the exhibit include William Sanders Scarborough, the first black member of the Modern Language Association and author of a Greek textbook (1881); Lewis Baxter Moore, who earned the first doctorate awarded by the University of Pennsylvania to an African American for his work on the Greek tragedian Sophocles; Wiley Lane, the first black professor of Greek at Howard University; and John Wesley Gilbert, the first black to attend the American School in Athens, Greece.

Monmouth classics professors Adrienne Hagen and Alana Newman brought the exhibit to the College, along with Kasha Appleton '20, a history major from Chicago. At the reception, Appleton will share her experience interning this last summer at the National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C.

"Library staff, particularly Sarah Henderson and Lynn Daw, have also been crucial in the planning process, and we've received valuable support from Regina Johnson and the Office of Intercultural Life, Mike Nelson and the Center for Civic and Social Change, from the Educational Studies Department and from English professor David Wright," said Hagen. "It's been wonderful to see people from all over campus pulling together to make this event happen."


Political consultant, filmmaker Baughman to speak Oct. 24 at Monmouth College

"Creative" political consultant and award-winning filmmaker Duane Baughman will visit Monmouth College Oct. 24.

Baughman will deliver a public talk at 4 p.m. in Room 276 of the Center for Science and Business. Titled "A Political Consultant's Success: Crashing the Party with Creativity," his talk is free and open to the public.

Baughman will also meet with students and visit political science professor Farhat Haq's "Foreign Policy" lass, where he will discuss his film Bhutto.

"Duane Baughman is one of the most creative consultants in Democratic politics I've ever met," said Monmouth political science lecturer Robin Johnson. "Rather than the tired, cookie-cutter approaches of most consultants, Duane provides innovative, attention-getting concepts to political advertising that get the voter's attention. He'll be sharing some of the ways he used creativity in winning campaigns and how students can sharpen their skills to become a political consultant."

Directed and produced by Baughman, Bhutto follows the barrier-shattering life of the first woman to lead an Islamic nation. Called an "intelligent, provocative" film by The Huffington Post, Bhutto was nominated for an Emmy Award and won a prestigious Peabody Award, making Baughman the only American political consultant to win a Peabody Award. The film also earned an EPIC Award from the White House Project for its promotion of women's rights.

Baughman oversaw 20 million pieces of mail for New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg's election and re-election campaigns, and was one of only six national Democratic mail strategists hired by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to develop and execute the mail campaign responsible for winning back the Democratic majority in the U.S. House in 2006.

Baughman also managed the development of 30 million pieces of mail and a multimillion-dollar budget for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, winning a history-making 20 primaries. His mail has helped pass statewide initiatives and helped elect and re-elect Democrats at every level in every corner of California, the state in which he lives.

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Leading social ethicist Gary Dorrien will deliver Monmouth College's Thompson Lecture on Oct. 24, one of several campus events in the coming week.

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