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News Release

Last modified: Monday, April 12, 2010

William T. Patten Foundation Lecture Series speakers for 2010-2011 announced

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 12, 2010

BOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The William T. Patten Foundation, under the auspices of the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs, announced today (April 12) the Patten Lecture Series for 2010-2011 which will feature climate change scholar Jean Palutikof, poet Wendell Berry, and political philosopher and feminist scholar Nancy Fraser.

Jean Palutikof, founding director and professor at the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF) at Griffith University, Australia, will lecture during the week of Oct. 10-15, 2010. Palutikof is perhaps the foremost scholar and proponent of climate change adaptation. In her previous post as head of Working Group II of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), she coordinated the assimilation of information regarding climate change vulnerability, impacts and adaptation for the fourth Assessment report of the IPCC, and in this capacity she and the IPCC were awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 2007. In her current position as director of NCCARF in Australia, she is playing a key role in identifying and prioritizing research foci and is a chief adviser to the Australian government on climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. For more information on Palutikof, see https://www.nccarf.edu.au/contacts.

Wendell Berry, writer, poet and lecturer, will speak during the week of Nov. 7-12, 2010. One of America's preeminent philosophers of place, a leading advocate for environmental stewardship and a fierce critic of agribusiness, he first came to literary notice as a poet in the 1960s. Since then, Berry has written nearly 30 books of poetry, an equal number of nonfiction works and more than a dozen novels. The thread running through all of his literary work is sustainability. He articulates a persistent criticism of industrial farming with its reliance on fossil fuels, mono-cultural techniques, and a studied ignorance of the local context in its drive for efficiency and profits. Berry not only anticipated the way in which human relationships with food would become the focus of attention in environmentalism and public culture generally, but he also identified the fundamental relationship between environmental problems, on the one hand, and questions about "virtue ethics" and what it means to live a good life, on the other. For more information on Berry, see https://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=540.

Nancy Fraser, Henry A. and Louise Loeb Professor of Politics and Philosophy, New School for Social Research, will lecture during the week of Jan. 23-28, 2011. Fraser is a political philosopher and feminist theorist whose writing addresses issues surrounding globalization, cosmopolitanism, identity politics, neoliberalism and the welfare state. Her work bridges the world of abstract theory and the world of policy/legal issues. Fraser's scholarship has brought feminist analysis and critical theory to bear on some of the most challenging practical issues facing developed democracies. She addresses a host of questions of broad public interest, such as: How should we conceive of the relationship between identity (e.g., racial and gender equality) and the broader struggle for expanded political and social equality? What place should democratic participation have in our globalizing world and in emerging "post-national" institutions? For more information on Fraser, see https://www.newschool.edu/nssr/faculty.aspx?id=10288.

All lectures are open to the public and will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7:30-8:30 p.m. Locations will be announced prior to the events.

The William T. Patten Foundation

The William T. Patten Foundation, endowed by a student of the Indiana University class of 1893, provides generous funds to bring to the Bloomington campus for a week people of extraordinary national and international distinction in the sciences, the humanities, and the arts. Past lecturers have included Oscar Arias, Jorge Luis Borges, Noam Chomsky, Natalie Zemon Davis, Umberto Eco, Julian S. Huxley, Evelyn Fox Keller, Toni Morrison, Martha Nussbaum, Amos Oz, Helmuth Rilling, Edward Said, Amartya Sen, Wole Soyinka, Rene Thom, Thomas Schelling, Strobe Talbott and Lester Thurow.

Inquires about the Patten Foundation, the Patten Lecture Series, and future nominations may be directed to vpfaa@indiana.edu.

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