Vernon L. Pack Distinguished Lecture Series
The Vernon L. Pack Distinguished Lecture and Scholar in Residence program was established in 2002 through a generous gift from alumnus Vernon L. Pack, a 1950 graduate of the University. A distinguished lecturer visits campus to address important current issues that will allow the Otterbein community to reflect on ethical, spiritual and social issues. In alternate years, an esteemed scholar is invited to campus to reside for up to one academic year in order to provide an educational enrichment experience for Otterbein students.
This year's program features a lecture by 2011 Pack Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence and world-renowned artist Harrell Fletcher titled “Re-evaluating the Role of an Artist in Society” at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 14, in Riley Auditorium at the Battelle Fine Arts Center, 170 W. Park St. The event is free and open to the public.
Fletcher is a renowned visual and conceptual artist and recipient of the 2005 Alpert Award in Visual Arts. He will be on campus in March and April, working with art students and faculty in the studio classrooms. He received his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and his MFA from California College of the Arts. He studied organic farming at UCSC and went on to work on a variety of small community supported agriculture farms, which impacted his work as an artist.
Fletcher has produced a variety of socially engaged collaborative and interdisciplinary projects since the early 1990s. His work has been shown all over the world, including exhibits in Paris, London, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. In 2002 Fletcher started Learning To Love You More, an ongoing participatory web site with Miranda July. The project was published into a book version in 2007. A hallmark of his work is to devise strategies for transforming the everyday experiences and objects of community residents into curated exhibitions.
Distinguished Lecturers:
2002 - Doris Kerns Goodwin, acclaimed historian and Pulitzer Prize in history winner for No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II.
2004 - Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International and host of CNN's international affairs program Fareed Zakaria GPS.
2005 - Alan Lightman, noted physicist and critically acclaimed author of Einstein's Dreams.
2008 - Ed Begley, Jr., actor and environmentalist.
2010 – Dee Dee Myers, White House press secretary under President Clinton from 1993-1994, political analyst and commentator, and author of Why Women Should Rule the World. Myers is an expert on the issues facing women in Washington and in leadership positions of all kinds.
Distinguished Scholars in Residence:
2003 - Dr. Valentine Moghadam, a professor born in Iran, who conducts research regarding development, social change, and gender in the Middle East, North Africa, and Afghanistan.
2005- Lois Raimondo, an internationally-known photojournalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist nominee for her work on the New York City Mitchell Lama housing project for New York Newsday.
2007 - Wande Abimbola, President of the International Congress of Orisa Tradition and Culture, and world-renowned expert on Ifa, a West African sacred divinatory and literary system.
2009 - Dr. Richard Alley, an acclaimed geologist who conducts research on environmental issues including abrupt climate changes, glaciers, ice sheet collapse and sea level change.
2011 – Harrell Fletcher, renowned visual and conceptual artist and recipient of the 2005 Alpert Award in Visual Arts.