1780 – The Official Blog of Transylvania University

1780 | The Official Blog of Transylvania University

Events

Transylvania announces lecture series named in honor of U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan, an 1852 graduate of Transylvania’s law department

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LEXINGTON, KY.—President R. Owen Williams announced today the creation of the John Marshall Harlan Lecture Series at Transylvania University, made possible by the generosity of McBrayer, McGinnis, Leslie & Kirkland, PLLC.  Harlan, an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1877-1911, was a Kentucky lawyer and politician and an 1853 graduate of Transylvania’s law department. An early champion of civil rights, he is most notable as the lone dissenter in the Civil Rights Cases (1883) and Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which, respectively, struck down as unconstitutional federal anti-discrimination legislation and upheld Southern segregation statutes. There are intriguing coincidences—one involving Harlan—between Williams’s scholarly interests and the history of Transylvania. His Yale dissertation, “Unequal Justice Under Law: The Supreme Court and the First Civil Rights Movement, 1857-1883,” has Justice Harlan as one of its primary protagonists. “John Marshall Harlan is my hero and the central figure in my dissertation,” Williams said. “So I felt as if there were a spiritual connection between Transylvania and me even before coming here.” Transylvania will launch the series this fall. William Wiecek, legal and constitutional historian and professor of public law and legislation at Syracuse University, will give the inaugural Harlan Lecture on September 26, followed by a spring 2012 lecture presented by Akhil Reed Amar, professor of law and political science at Yale University. “We created this lecture series to bring to campus highly esteemed legal figures of national or international prominence who have

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Juried student exhibition opens April 27 in Transylvania’s Morlan Gallery; opening reception one of the events for inauguration of R. Owen Williams

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—The Juried Student Exhibition opens Wednesday, April 27, in Transylvania’s Morlan Gallery.  All students who made art during the 2010-11 academic year were invited to show their work in the exhibition, which runs through Friday, May 20.  A public reception honoring the artists will be held Wednesday, April 27, from 7-8 p.m. The reception is held this year in connection to the celebration of the inauguration of R. Owen Williams as Transylvania’s 25th president. Jurors’ awards will be presented at 7:45 p.m. William Pollard, vice president and dean of the college, will select one piece to receive the Dean’s Purchase Award. The award-winning piece will become part of Transylvania’s permanent collection. Morlan Gallery is open weekdays, noon to 5 p.m., and the exhibit and reception are free and open to the public.

Transylvania University presidential inauguration events scheduled for April 27-29; installation ceremony, which is free and open to the public, set for Friday, April 29, at 10 a.m.

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—The inauguration of R. Owen Williams as the 25th president of Transylvania University will be celebrated April 27-29, with the installation ceremony taking place Friday, April 29, at 10 a.m. on the lawn of historic Old Morrison. College and university presidents and representatives from across the country, as well as trustees, alumni, parents, students, faculty, staff, elected officials and members of the Lexington community will be in attendance to honor Williams and the 231-year-old college.   “This is one of the highest honors of my life,” said Williams. “Transylvania is an extraordinary liberal arts college, and, as a historian, I am in awe of its rich history.” Williams, who became president on August 1, 2011, earned an A.B. in philosophy from Dartmouth College, an M.A. in intellectual history from Cambridge University, a master’s of law from Yale Law School and a Ph.D. in history, specializing in nineteenth-century American history, from Yale University. Williams’s inaugural speech, which is free and open to the public, will be his first major address to the Lexington community. “A presidential inauguration is a fitting way in which to celebrate the heritage of the college,” said William F. Pollard, vice president and dean of the college and inauguration chair. “It honors past presidents and leaders who have helped shaped the university since its founding and marks the start of a new chapter in Transylvania’s distinguished history.” The inaugural symposium will be presented Thursday, April 28,

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“An Evening of Song”: Transylvania’s Creative Intelligence Series brings University of Kentucky opera student Reginald Smith Jr. to campus Wednesday, March 23 at 7:30 p.m.; free and open to the public

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University’s new Creative Intelligence Series has so far brought to campus a behaviorist, a primatologist and a sociologist. On Wednesday, March 23,  University of Kentucky Opera Theatre student Reginald Smith Jr., will perform at 7:30 p.m. in Carrick Theater in the Mitchell Fine Arts Center. This performance is free and open to the public. Earlier this year, Smith received the Best Stage Presence Award and Third Place in the Metropolitan Opera Mid-South Regional Auditions. In 2007, he was the undergraduate first-place winner of the Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition at UK and is currently a senior studying with Everett McCorvey in the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre program, pursuing a dual degree in vocal performance and vocal music education. Smith, a native of Atlanta, has been seen in performances of “Romeo et Juliette,” “The Magic Flute,” “Die Fledermaus,” “La Boheme,” “Mikado,” “River of Time” and “Amahl and the Night Visitors.” He has participated in summer music programs including The American Institute of Musical Studies Program in Graz, Austria, the Premiering Sydney Program in Sydney, Australia, the Intermezzo Young Artist Program and Seagle Music Colony. Transylvania’s Creative Intelligence Series celebrates the activities of people who are working at the leading edge of their fields. While the events tend to focus on the activities of younger scholars, artists and performers, they also bring to campus more established individuals whose work shows a high level of creativity. The name of the series

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Former Poet Laureate of Kentucky, Richard Taylor, will give reading at Transylvania Thursday, March 31, at 7 p.m.

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—Former Poet Laureate of Kentucky and Kenan Visiting Writer at Transylvania University, Richard Taylor, will read from his work at Transy Thursday, March 31, at 7 p.m. in the Carrick Theater of the Mitchell Fine Arts Center. The event is free and open to the public.   Taylor has won a variety of honors for his extensive publications in both poetry and prose and was named Poet Laureate of Kentucky in 1999. As director of Poetry in the Schools for the Kentucky Arts Commission, he served as poet-in-residence at a dozen public elementary and secondary schools across Kentucky. He also served as a professor of English at Kentucky State University for many years. Taylor earned a B.A. in English from the University of Kentucky in 1963, an M.A. in English from the University of Louisville in 1964, a J.D. from the University of Louisville School of Law in 1967 and a Ph.D. in English from UK in 1974. His publications include Sue Mundy: A Novel of the Civil War in Kentucky, Rail Splitter (poems), Stone Eye (poems) and Girty (novel).   The lecture is sponsored by the Delcamp Visiting Writer series. For more information, contact the public relations office at (859) 233-8120.