Three National and International Prize Winners to Speak at CSU, Chico in the Next Month
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 2, 2001
Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260
Three National and International Prize Winners to Speak at CSU, Chico in the Next Month
Nobel Prize Winner Lech Walesa, National Book Critic’s Award Winner Anne Fadiman, and MacArthur Prize Winner Richard Rorty Comprise a Prestigious Speaker Lineup.
A rich selection of speakers is coming to California State University, Chico in the next five weeks. The three speakers are connected to each other only by the renown each enjoys in his or her respective arena. Lech Walesa, Nobel Prize winner and former president of Poland; Anne Fadiman, author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down; and Richard Rorty, American intellectual and author of Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America will speak on Oct. 12, Oct. 16, and Nov. 5 and 6, respectively.
Lech Walesa Lech Walesa is the fifth Nobel Prize winner in four years to speak as part of the Presidential Lecture series. Walesa was elected as the first democratic president of Poland in 1990 after a 10-year struggle as leader of the 10 million-member Solidarity Labor Movement. With Walesa’s leadership, Solidarity eventually ended communist domination of Poland.
Walesa was imprisoned with other Solidarity members in the fall of 1982, and after his release, he continued to work in the underground movement. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983. He was named Man of the Year by Time magazine, The Financial Times, The London Observer, Die Welt, Die Zeit, L’Express and Le Soir.
Walesa will speak about his crusade against communism on Oct. 12 at 7:30 p.m. in Laxson Auditorium. After the lecture, a reception honoring Walesa will take place on the CSU, Chico campus. The reception will include beverages and light refreshments. Tickets are available through the University Box Office, 530-898-6333.
Anne Fadiman Anne Fadiman is the author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (1997), which chronicles the trials of an epileptic Hmong child and her family living in Merced, California. It is a story of the dilemmas posed by medicine and culture, language and understanding, and doctors and family. Fadiman’s treatment of the gulf between the Hmong and American medical systems won her a 1997 National Book Critic’s Circle Award.
Fadiman’s book is part of the Book in Common program at CSU, Chico. The common freshman reading is designed to engage students in considering a wide range of topics, including cultural diversity, social services and health administration, and intercultural communications.
Fadiman’s essays and articles have appeared in Harper’s, The New Yorker, and The Washington Post. While a staff writer at Life, she won the 1987 National Magazine Award for her reporting on suicide among the elderly.
Fadiman will speak about her book on Oct. 16 at 7:30 p.m. in Laxson Auditorium. She will also speak at a free daytime lecture as part of Chico Performances’ Master Class program Oct. 16 at 3 p.m. Tickets are available through the University Box Office, 530-898-6333.
Richard Rorty Richard Rorty, public intellectual and Stanford professor, will visit Chico on Nov. 5 and 6 as part of CSU, Chico’s Presidential Scholar’s series. Rorty is one of the most controversial and well-known public intellectuals in contemporary America, a former president of the American Philosophical Association and the recipient of a five-year MacArthur Prize fellowship, the most prestigious award for academic achievement offered in this country.
On Monday, Nov. 5, at 7 p.m., Rorty will present “From Religion Through Philosophy to Literature: The Way the Western Intellectuals Went” in Performing Arts Center 134 (Ruth Rowland-Taylor Recital Hall). This lecture will be based on his book Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (Cambridge, 1989). A reception follows in the Humanities Center in Trinity 100 and 126.
The next evening, Tuesday, Nov. 6, at 7 p.m., Professor Rorty will deliver a public lecture titled “The Intellectuals and the Poor” in Performing Arts Center 144 (Harlen Adams Theatre). This talk will be based on his book-length essay Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America (Harvard, 1998).
Rorty’s lectures are sponsored by the Office of the President, the Humanities Center and the College of Humanities and Fine Arts. They are free and open to the public. For further information contact Laird Easton, director of the Humanities Center, at 530-898-4284.
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