Each year, The University of Tulsa offers a range of standout lectures, regular monthly talks and one-time wonders. Many of the talks are free and open to the public so everyone has a chance to learn and leave inspired. Attendees can expect to hear new ideas and discuss impactful topics. Join any of the following speakers scheduled for the 2020 spring semester.
12th Annual Judge Stephanie K. Seymour Distinguished Lecture in Law
Jan. 16
6-7 p.m.
Free and open to the public
Monica C. Bell, associate professor of law and sociology at Yale University, presents “The Challenge and Possibility of Dismantling Legal Estrangement in the 21st Century” at the College of Law. A first-generation college graduate from South Carolina’s Upcountry, Bell holds a B.A. from Furman University, an M.Sc. from University College Dublin, a J.D. from Yale and a Ph.D. in Sociology & Social Policy from Harvard. Bell specializes in areas of research including criminal justice, poverty, welfare law, housing and race and the law.
The Stephanie K. Seymour Distinguished Lecture in Law is the only lecture series in the country established by former clerks to honor the judge for whom they served. TU Interim President Janet K. Levit served as a clerk for Seymour, a senior judge on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
TU Law offers one hour of CLE credit for members of the legal community at no cost.
The Birth of Loud: The Guitar Rivalry That Shaped Rock-n-Roll
Jan. 30
7-8:30 p.m.
Free and open to all
The New York Times Book Review praises The Birth of Loud as “a hot-rod joy ride through mid-20th-century American history.” Ian S. Port, award-winning writer and music critic whose work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Village Voice, The Threepenny Review and The Believer, discusses this one-of-a-kind narrative. The Birth of Loud masterfully recreates the rivalry between the two men who innovated the electric guitar’s amplified sound — Leo Fender and Les Paul — and their intense competition to convince rock stars like the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton to play the instruments they built.
A book signing will follow the event, which is co-sponsored by Magic City Books with the Oklahoma Center for the Humanities.
20th Annual Buck Colbert Franklin Memorial Civil Rights Lecture
Feb. 5
6–7 p.m.
Free and open to the public
César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, associate professor of law at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, presents “Migrating to Prison: Immigration in the Age of Mass Incarceration.” For most of the nation’s history, migrants came and went from the United States without the risk of being imprisoned simply for moving about. These days, roughly half a million migrants are incarcerated annually because they have violated immigration law. The time is ripe to ask why we imprison so many migrants and how this differs from years past.
Cuauhtémoc García Hernández publishes crimmigration.com, an award-winning blog about the convergence of criminal and immigration law. In 2014, he received the Derrick A. Bell, Jr. Award by the Association of American Law Schools Section on Minority Groups, an honor issued to a “junior faculty member who, through activism, mentoring, colleagueship, teaching and scholarship, has made an extraordinary contribution to legal education, the legal system or social justice.”
The Buck Colbert Franklin Memorial Civil Rights Lecture honors one of the first black attorneys in Tulsa and Oklahoma. In the aftermath of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, Franklin served his community and his profession by assisting victims. Working from a tent because his office and home had been destroyed, he represented clients, filed briefs and fought back against the injustice of the city’s assault on Tulsa’s black community. The lecture also honors the legacy of his son, the distinguished historian John Hope Franklin, who delivered the first lecture in the series.
A book signing will follow the event. TU Law offers one hour of CLE credit for members of the legal community at no cost.
Biography and Play: Zachary Leader
Feb. 6
5-6:30 p.m.
Free and open to all
Join the TU Department of English for an afternoon with biographer Zachary Leader to learn about the playful nature of biography writing and research. Leader’s best-known works are The Life of Kingsley Amis, a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Biography, and The Life of Saul Bellow: To Fame and Fortune, 1915-1964, which was shortlisted for the Wingate Prize in the U.K.
Magic City Books will be onsite at the Zarrow Center for Art & Education selling books.
Student lecture on Flash Graphene Synthesis and Single-Molecule Nanomachines in Medicine with Dr. James Tour
Feb. 13
3-4:30 p.m.
Free and open to the public
James Tour, T.T. and W.F. Chao Professor of Chemistry and professor of computer science and materials science and nanoengineering at Rice University, is a distinguished chemist and renowned researcher. He will demonstrate a new process called flash graphene to make graphene in bulk from any solid carbon source without metal catalysts, solvent, furnaces, lasers, in less than one second. Tour will also discuss the design and synthesis of single molecule machines that have peptide addends for targeting of specific cell types. Upon visible light activation, they spin at three million rotations per second, opening and destroying cancer cells and superbacteria.
“A Practicing Scientist with Faith in Jesus” lecture with Dr. James Tour
Feb. 13
7-8:30 p.m.
Free and open to all
Chemist and renowned researcher James Tour, T.T. and W.F. Chao Professor of Chemistry and professor of computer science and materials science and nanoengineering at Rice University, shares his experiences as a world-class scientist who fully embraces his faith in Jesus.
He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, has been inducted into the National Academy of Inventors and is the founder of 12 active companies.
Play in the Fantasy Realm: Young Children’s Relationships with Imaginary Companions
Feb. 27
7-8:30 p.m.
Free and open to the public
Tracy Gleason, a developmental psychologist studying relationships — real and imagined — with a focus on young children’s imaginary companions, talks about how children interact with imaginary friends and how this has the potential to illuminate how young people think about and form social relationships in general. This discussion is part of The Judy O. Berry Honorary Lecture Series, which features topics related to risk and resilience in children and families.
The lecture is presented in partnership with the Department of Psychology and The University of Tulsa Institute of Trauma, Adversity and Injustice (TITAN).
Cadenhead-Settle Memorial Lecture
March 3
7 p.m.
Guest Speaker Christy Lauren Pichichero, associate professor of French and history; vice president of the Western Society for French History; and college coordinator of diversity and study abroad at George Mason University, VA, will be coming to The University of Tulsa and deliver the Cadenhead-Settle Memorial Lecture this spring.
This event is sponsored by the TU history department.
Richard B. Risk CLE Practicum Series featuring John M. Hickey
March 6
12-1 p.m.
Free and open to all, RSVP required
Guest speaker John M. Hickey (JD ’84), will present “The Trials and Tribulations of Banking Marijuana Businesses.” Hickey’s 30 years of experience as an attorney encompasses both federal and state courts in cases involving complex, multi-state commercial lawsuits and bankruptcy proceedings as well as employment discrimination litigation and complex construction arbitrations. He also serves as the lead shareholder for the cannabis law practice.
TU Law offers one hour of CLE credit for members of the legal community at no cost.
Presidential Lecture Series — Becoming Dr. Q: My Journey from Migrant Farm Worker to Brain Surgeon
April 2
7:30 p.m.
Free and open to the public
Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa — just call him Dr. Q — was an impoverished teenager living in a rural Mexican village before he hopped an 18-foot fence into California and worked his way to becoming a medical student at Harvard. He is now regarded as one of the world’s finest surgeons, operating on some 250 people with brain tumors every year and leading cutting-edge research to cure brain cancer. He is now the neurosurgery chair at the Mayo Clinic in Florida.
Dr. Q has appeared on television in the award-winning ABC series Hopkins as well as on NOVA, CBS News with Katie Couric and NBC’s The Today Show. Quiñones-Hinojosa’s best-selling autobiography, Becoming Dr. Q: My Journey from Migrant Farm Worker to Brain Surgeon, is the inspiration for Dr. Q, a film being produced by Brad Pitt’s production company, Plan B, in collaboration with Disney.
A book signing will follow the lecture.
Women and Gender Studies March Centennial Suffrage keynote
Feb. 21
7:30-9 p.m.
Sally Roesch Wagner is one of the first people to earn a Ph.D. in women’s studies and is the author of The Women’s Suffrage Movement, which contains a forward by Gloria Steinem. She has appeared in Ken Burns’ documentary, “Not for Ourselves Alone,” and she has also written about Native American women’s influence on the suffrage movement.
Wagner’s lecture will take place at the Helmerich Center for American Research and her book will be for sale at the event. The visit is co-sponsored by the TU Women’s and Gender Studies department, the Tulsa Institute for Trauma, Adversity and iNjustice and Gilcrease Museum.
Various dates
11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.
RSVP required; fee to attend
Eight times a year, Friends of Finance brings leading executives to the TU campus to share their knowledge and explore important business issues. The 2019-20 executive speaker series continues the tradition of distinguished speakers with CEOs and presidents from Avansic E-Discovery and Digital Forensics, Sanguine Gas Exploration, ArcBest Trucking and Xcel Energy – Colorado.
Various dates
12:10-12:50 p.m.
Free and open to the public
The grand rounds concept originated in physician training. Under this model, students listen while expert physicians and professors share the latest medical knowledge. The College of Health Sciences has drawn inspiration from this tradition to create a learning opportunity for everyone who is interested in contemporary health and health care. Each of our grand rounds addresses topics that have real-life application.
These are not 40-minute lectures; instead, guest speakers present ideas and invite participants to weigh in with their thoughts and questions.