ECU’s Harriot College hosts “Voyages” lectures
GREENVILLE, NC — The new “Voyages of Discovery” Lecture Series at East Carolina University will bring scholars in the humanities and sciences to campus in the coming academic year.
The “Voyages” series is an outgrowth of the annual Harriot Lecture devoted to the life and work of 17th century explorer and astronomer Thomas Harriot, for whom the Harriot College of Arts and Sciences is named.
“This new lecture series, which includes the Harriot Lecture, is meant to celebrate the spirit of exploration and discovery that characterized Harriot’s life,” said Alan White, dean of ECU’s Harriot College, who worked with members of the Advancement Council for the college to make the new series possible.
On Sept. 27, Peter White, professor of botany at UNC-Chapel Hill and director of the N.C. Botanical Garden, will present “From the Appalachians to the Coastal Plain: North Carolina’s Wildflowers and Ecology”.
On Oct. 10, Richard Leakey, professor of anthropology at Stony Brook University, will discuss his 30-year career as a paleoanthropologist and his work in Kenya. Leakey has unearthed more than 200 fossils, including the 1.6 million year old Homo Erectus “Turkana Boy.”
On Feb. 21, University of Minnesota historian Lisa Norling will deliver the series’ Sallie Southall Cotten Lecture, “Captain Ahab Had a Wife” and will examine gender roles in maritime men and women’s work.
On April 11, Mark Nicholls, a librarian at St. Johns College at Cambridge University, will deliver a lecture about Sir Walter Raleigh and Thomas Harriot. Nicholls is the author of several historical books about Raleigh and Harriot.
Leakey’s lecture will be held at 7 p.m. in Wright Auditorium. Tickets are available to the public through the ECU Central Ticket Office at 252-328-4788. ECU students, staff and faculty will be admitted without charge.
The other lectures will be held at 7 p.m. in Room OC-307 of the Science and Technology Building. They are free and open to the public.
For more information, contact: John A. Tucker, director, Harriot Voyages of Discovery Lecture Series, at 252.328.1028 or tuckerjo@ecu.edu or visit: http://www.ecu.edu/cs-cas/harriot/voyageslectures/