The Celebrity Lecture Series

Playwright Edward Albee is introduced by Dean John Eadie and Professor Joyce Ramsay of Michigan State University. Ramsay praises Albee as “the most important American playwright who is writing today” while enumerating the playwright's many works and awards. Edward Albee begins his lecture by talking about his chaotic education that eventually led h...

Dean John Eadie and Professor Dixie Durr introduce dancer and educator Jacques d'Amboise. Durr summarizes d'Amboise's career in dance from his childhood spent attending his sister’s ballet class to the founding of the National Dance Institute. d'Amboise addresses the virtue of teaching dance to underprivileged children, suggesting that dance provid...

Introductions for dancer Judith Jamison are made by Dean John Eadie and Professor Dixie Durr, who describes Jamison's difficult ascent to the top of the world of dance and her successful career thereafter. Jamison commences the lecture by discussing her work with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and its success involving children and the unde...

Novelist William Kennedy is introduced by Dean John Eadie and Professor William Penn. Kennedy begins with an amusing anecdote about writing a short story for ...

Writer Jane Smiley is introduced by Dean John Eadie and Professor William Penn who discusses the underlying themes in Smiley's novels. Smiley believes that the novels she began reading at age six inspired her to become an author and showed her that she has an inner voice. Smiley discusses the role of writing plays in our society today. Writing is n...

Author and cultural theorist Susan Sontage is introduced by John Eadie and Marcelette Williams who summarizes Sontag's writing career by giving a history of her works and awards. Williams briefly meditates on what is to be the topic of Sontag's lecture, "Illness as Metaphor," commenting on the "danger" of metaphorical usage in our society. Sontag b...

Introductions for author and satirist Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. are made by John Eadie and Nancy Pogel who summarizes Vonnegut's varied career. Vonnegut opens the lecture on his beginnings as an author, and transitions to address the structure of society, stating that in order to lead a "good life" one must accrue a good support system, what he terms an "...