Eckerd College is pleased to present lectures and presentations, as well as art and athletic events, for the enjoyment and enlightenment of our community.
Events are free and open to the public unless otherwise specified.
Featured events Fall 2023
Elizabeth Rush: Lecture and book signing
Tuesday, September 5, 2023, 7–9 p.m.
Location: Fox Hall
Elizabeth Rush is the author of Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Central to Rush’s writing practice is the act of listening: listening to those who live in frontline climate-changed communities, listening to Antarctica’s great glaciers as they go to pieces, listening to all those voices long locked out of environmental conversations.
Rush spent many years reporting from coastal communities already feeling the pressure of higher tides and stronger storms. In Rising, she weaves together her personal experience with firsthand testimonials of those living on climate change’s front lines, guiding readers through some of the places where sea level rise is a reality. Hailed as “deeply felt” (The New York Times), “a revelation” (Pacific Standard), and “the book on climate change and sea levels that was missing” (Chicago Tribune), Rising is both a highly original work of lyric reportage and a haunting meditation on how to let go of the places we love.
Rush’s work has appeared in a wide range of publications, from The New York Times to Orion to Guernica. She has received fellowships from the National Science Foundation, National Geographic, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Howard Foundation, the Andrew Mellon Foundation and the Metcalf Institute. Today she lives with her husband and son in Providence, Rhode Island, where she teaches creative nonfiction at Brown University.
Sponsored by The Eckerd College Class of 1968 and the Eckerd College Foundations Collegium
Cynthia Barnett: Lecture and book signing
Tuesday, September 26, 2023, 7–9 p.m.
Location: Fox Hall
The human fascination with seashells is primal. Archeological evidence suggests that Neanderthals collected cockle shells on the coast of what is modern Spain, perhaps giving preference to those they found beautiful. Native Floridians built “great cities of shell” along the coasts, later carted off for road fill. Award-winning environmental author Cynthia Barnett spent years listening to seashells—and to science, Indigenous knowledge and history—to explore the surprisingly profound relationship between humans and seashells for her book The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans. Traveling from Florida to the Bahamas to the Maldives, West Africa, and beyond, she shares the ancient history of shells as global currency, their use as religious and luxury objects, and the remarkable marine mollusks that make them. For eons, shells and their makers have reflected humanity’s shifting attitudes toward and precarious place in the natural world. While shells reveal how humans have altered the climate and the sea—down to its very chemistry—they are also sentinels of hope for alternative energy and other solutions that lie beneath the waves. By listening keenly to an aspect of nature and culture long hidden in plain sight, Barnett illuminates the beauty and wonder of seashells as well as the human ingenuity and scientific solutions they represent for our warming world.
Barnett writes for a wide range of publications from National Geographic to The Atlantic and serves as Environmental Journalist in Residence at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications.
Sponsored by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Eckerd College Environmental Studies program; Eckerd Marine Science Club
Art
Visit our three art galleries to enjoy works by alumni and faculty as well as senior theses and more.
Film
Enjoy screenings of critically acclaimed films from around the world during our International Cinema Series as well as films to raise awareness and promote discussion of matters relating to nature, place and the environment during our Environmental Film Fest.
Performance
Attend theatre productions put on by faculty and students in the Bininger Center for Performing Arts.
Dr. Danielle Allen: Lecture and book signing
Thursday, October 26, 2023, 7–9 p.m.
Location: McArthur Gymnasium
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Dr. Danielle Allen is a professor of public policy, politics and ethics at Harvard University; director of the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Ethics; and James Bryant Conant University Professor—one of Harvard’s highest honors. Allen’s landmark critical reading and interpretation of the Declaration of Independence, Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality, is part of our first-year curriculum in Human Experience, and next year her latest book, Justice by Means of Democracy, will be included in the Imagining Justice curriculum.
As our students grow more pessimistic about their present and future participation in politics, the time is right for Allen’s inspiring but realistic messages about overcoming political despair. Additionally, Allen’s education and academic trajectory are noteworthy. She holds two doctorates—one in classics and a second in political science—and her work is deeply synthetic, resisting the tensions between the historical and the present.
Sponsored by the Eckerd College Class of 1968, ECOS, Center for Inclusive Excellence, Office of the President of Eckerd College and the Eckerd College Foundations Collegium
Roslyn Clark Artis, J.D., Ed.D.: Lecture
“Finding Our Voices – Your Leadership Language”
Thursday, November 9, 2023, 5:30 p.m.
Location: Fox Hall
Benedict College President Roslyn Clark Artis—the former leader of Florida Memorial University in Miami Gardens—returns to the Sunshine State to encourage and uplift future leaders by discussing the resilience it takes to rise to the top. Even though women account for 62% of students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, only 25% of the institutions are led by women. Find out the secret to breaking the leadership barrier from a proven trailblazer who practiced law for a decade before finding her passion in higher education leadership. This event kicks off the Eckerd College Classic weekend featuring a tailgate, step show and nonconference basketball tournament with Allen University, Benedict College, Eckerd College and the University of Tampa.
Roslyn Clark Artis is also the chair of the President’s Advisory Board for Title III Administration.
Sponsored by AAS and The Office of Inclusive Student Engagement
Dr. Emily Yeh: Lecture
“Global Geographies of Weather Modification in an Era of Climate Change”
Thursday, November 9, 2023, 7–8:30 p.m.
Location: Miller Auditorium
As climate change impacts intensify, efforts to modify the weather is on the rise around the world. In 2018, seven states in the western US entered into the Colorado River Basin Weather Modification Agreement to try to increase snowpack. In response to unprecedented drought on the Yangtze River in 2022, the Chinese government employed extensive weather modification efforts. From routine cloud seeding to controversial solar radiation management, intensified weather modifications have contributed to geopolitical tensions. Despite the importance of weather modification in the context of climate change, it has not attracted much recent attention from social scientists. This presentation will offer a wide-ranging and fun overview of weather modification through a geographical lens.
Dr. Yeh is a professor of geography at University of Colorado Boulder, and a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar.
Sponsored by the Eckerd College Phi Beta Kappa chapter
Eckerd College Classic
Men’s Basketball vs. Benedict College
Saturday, November 11, 2023, 7 p.m.
Location: McArthur Physical Education Center
A nonconference men’s basketball tournament for Allen University, Benedict College, Eckerd College and University of Tampa. Pregame events include a tailgate with food and drinks, performance from the Gibbs High School “Sound of the South” pep band, ceremonial jump ball, in-game contests, giveaways and a unity step routine at halftime!
The Eckerd College Tritons also take on Allen University at 2 p.m. on November 12.
Sponsored by Eckerd Athletics and The Office of Inclusive Student Engagement
