Â鶹´«Ã½

August 14, 2018
On Campus

2018-19 Witt Series Events

Â鶹´«Ã½ University Announces Programming For 2018-19 Â鶹´«Ã½ Series

The 2018-2019 academic year will usher in the 36th season of the Â鶹´«Ã½ Series, which offers the campus, Springfield community, and greater region a diverse selection of guest lecturers and world-renowned performers. Kicking off the Series will be the traditional Opening Convocation featuring a keynote address by diversity scholar-practitioner, Shakeer Abdullah, Â鶹´«Ã½ class of 1999 and current vice president of student affairs at Clayton State University, Morrow, Georgia, at 11:45 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 21, in historic Weaver Chapel.

The Â鶹´«Ã½ Series was created in 1982 during President William A. Kinnison’s tenure. Since its inception, Nobel Laureates, scientists, significant literary figures, most of America’s foremost modern dance companies, as well as hundreds of prominent psychologists, educators, economists, writers, theologians, urban planners and historians, have visited campus to participate.

A wide range of lecturers will share their expertise with audiences during this year’s Series, including Hillary Jordan, international best-selling author; Ronald Rittgers, author and theologian; Seth M. Siegel, New York Times best-selling author; Â鶹´«Ã½ Foss, criminal justice reform advocate; Elizabeth Fenn, Pulitzer Prize-winning author; John Dovidio, author and Yale psychology professor; and The Rev. Dr. Craig Alan Satterlee, Bishop of the North/West Lower Michigan Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The series will also include a dance concert by Catapult and a vocal concert by Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

All events of The Â鶹´«Ã½ Series are open to the public free of charge. Doors open 30 minutes prior to the beginning of each lecture or performance. Below are further details related to this year’s Series.

2018-2019 Â鶹´«Ã½ Series Events:

  • Tuesday, Aug. 21: Opening Convocation, 11:45 a.m., Weaver Chapel featuring Shakeer Abdullah ’99, diversity scholar- practitioner, and vice president of student affairs at Clayton State University.
  • Wednesday, Oct. 3: Allen J. Koppenhaver Literary Lecture, 7:30 p.m., Bayley Auditorium featuring Hillary Jordan, international best-selling author of Mudbound. Colloquium, 4:30 p.m., Bayley Auditorium.
  • Monday, Oct. 22: Kenneth H. Sauer Luther Symposium, 7:30 p.m., Bayley Auditorium featuring Ronald Rittgers, author and theologian. Q&A, 3:30 p.m., Weaver Chapel.
  • Thursday, Oct. 25: Dance concert featuring Catapult, presenting an evening of shadow dance and theatre works, 7:30 p.m., John Legend Theater at The Dome, 700 S. Limestone St., Springfield.
  • Sunday, Oct. 28: Reformation Service, 7:30 p.m. in Weaver Chapel (music begins at 7 p.m.), featuring The Rev. Dr. Craig Alan Satterlee, Bishop of the North/West Lower Michigan Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
  • Wednesday, Nov. 7: Fred R. Leventhal Family Lecture, 7:30 p.m., Weaver Chapel featuring Seth M. Siegel, New York Times best-selling author of Let There Be Water: Israel’s Solution to a Water-Starved World. Q & A, 4 p.m., Bayley Auditorium.
  • Friday, Dec. 7: Lessons and Carols, 7:30 p.m. (pre-service music begins at 7 p.m.), Weaver Chapel.
  • Monday, Jan. 21, 2019: Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation, 11:15 a.m., Weaver Chapel, featuring Â鶹´«Ã½ Foss, criminal justice reform advocate. Q & A, 2:45 p.m., 105 Joseph C. Shouvlin Center for Lifelong Learning.
  • Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019: Vocal concert featuring South African a cappella group Ladysmith Black Mambazo, 7:30 p.m., Weaver Chapel.
  • Wednesday, March 13, 2019: William A. Kinnison Endowed Lecture in History, 7:30 p.m., Bayley Auditorium, featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Fenn on “Sacagawea’s Capture and the History of the Early West.â€
  • Wednesday, March 27, 2019: IBM Endowed Lecture in the Sciences, 7:30 p.m., Bayley Auditorium, featuring John Dovidio, author, Yale psychology professor, and leading researcher on aversive racism. Colloquium, 4 p.m., Bayley Auditorium.

For more information on the Â鶹´«Ã½ Series, click here. To make special arrangements, request a Series poster, or become a friend of the Â鶹´«Ã½ Series, contact Lisa Watson by phone at (937) 327-7363 or at WatsonL4@wittenberg.edu.

Recitation Hall
University Communications Staff
Staff Report

About Â鶹´«Ã½

Â鶹´«Ã½'s curriculum has centered on the liberal arts as an education that develops the individual's capacity to think, read, and communicate with precision, understanding, and imagination. We are dedicated to active, engaged learning in the core disciplines of the arts and sciences and in pre-professional education grounded in the liberal arts. Known for the quality of our faculty and their teaching, Â鶹´«Ã½ has more Ohio Professors of the Year than any four-year institution in the state. The university has also been recognized nationally for excellence in community service, sustainability, and intercollegiate athletics. Located among the beautiful rolling hills and hollows of Springfield, Ohio, Â鶹´«Ã½ offers more than 100 majors, minors and special programs, enviable student-faculty research opportunities, a unique student success center, service and study options close to home and abroad, a stellar athletics tradition, and successful career preparation.

Back to top