Hollins University is featuring an array of renowned writers, scholars, and commentators as part of ”Banquet of the Mind,” a series of special events occurring throughout the 2012-13 academic year.
The theme for this year’s programming is based on a famous quote from Homer’s
The Odyssey: “Discourse, the sweeter banquet of the mind.”
The following are among the highlights of the 2012-13 events calendar:
- Acclaimed author Ann Patchett presents a lecture and reading on Tuesday, September 11 at 7:30 p.m. in the Hollins Theatre. Patchett’s novels include the New York Times best-selling Run; The Patron Saint of Liars, which was a New York Times notable book of the year; Taft, which won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize; and Bel Canto, which received the PEN/Faulkner Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Of her most recent work, State of Wonder, NPR said, “If you’re looking for an escape that doesn’t abandon literary elegance, this is it,” while the New York Times called it “generous, fearless, and startlingly wise.” Hollins chose State of Wonder as this year’s common summer reading for the university’s incoming first-year students.
- Hollins commemorates the 50th anniversary of the university’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter with UCLA Distinguished Professor of Geography and Professor of Italian John Agnew on Wednesday, September 26 at 7 p.m. in the Richard Wetherill Visual Arts Center’s Niederer Auditorium. In his lecture, “Immigration Rules and Citizenship: How Immigration Rules Relate to Different Conceptions of Nationality Around the World,” Agnew lays out a framework for understanding immigration “management” and illustrates it with case studies from Italy, South Korea, Mexico, and the United States.
- ABC News and NPR political analyst Cokie Roberts (pictured above) comes to Hollins on Tuesday, January 29, 2013, to speak at 7:30 p.m. in Hollins Theatre. In her more than 40 years in broadcasting, Roberts has won numerous awards, including three Emmys. She has been inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame and was cited by the American Women in Radio and Television as one of the 50 greatest women in the history of broadcasting. In 2008 the Library of Congress named her a “Living Legend,” one of the very few Americans to have attained that honor. Roberts’ book, We Are Our Mothers’ Daughters, an account of women’s roles and relationships throughout American history, was a number one best-seller.
- Sarah Vowell, the best-selling author of six nonfiction books on American history and culture, delivers a talk on Thursday, March 28, 2013, at 7 p.m. in the Hollins Theatre. Vowell was a contributing editor for Public Radio International’s This American Life from 1996-2008 and is a frequent guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Late Show with David Letterman. She was the voice of teen superhero Violet Parr in the Academy Award-winning animated film, The Incredibles. Vowell has been a columnist for Salon.com, Time, and San Francisco Weekly, and writes occasional essays for the opinion page of the New York Times.
Admission to these programs is free and open to the public. For more information about all the ”Banquet of the Mind” events at Hollins, visit
www.hollins.edu.
