This semester’s upcoming faculty lectures boast an impressive array of professors and topics. The series began yesterday, January 18th, with recreation professor Laura Alexeichik and will next be moving to the chemistry department with Paul Martino on February 1st.
The final four presentations are valedictory lectures to be given by retiring faculty, including art professor Gary Baxter on February 15th, Judy Congdon of the music department on March 8th, philosopher Carlton Fisher on April 12th, and finishing with the political science of Ronald Oakerson on April 26th.
On February 15th, Professor Gary Baxter intends to speak about “the challenge of balancing teaching with making art” as well as his unexpected journey of becoming a teacher. He views this combined role as artist and instructor as being “an integral part of who I am as a person.” While this topic is important to Baxter and relevant to many budding artists, Professor Baxter also believes in the ability of art to help all individuals “gain confidence in the area of problem solving and recognition of quality” and to provide “important skills that can affect one’s quality of life and pertain to many other aspects of life.”
Dr. Judy Congdon will follow with her lecture on March 8th by reflecting on what her twenty-seven years as an organist on the Houghton faculty has taught her about Christian worship, and how through her experiences she has “been formed to be a better worshiper and learned more fully how to draw near to God.”
Since “we are all called to be worshipers of God, regardless of our college majors or disciplinary competencies,” Dr. Congdon hopes that the “details of my journey and principles I have learned about worship, to be shared in this lecture, will be informative or helpful” to all who listen.
In his lecture on April 12th, Dr. Carlton Fisher intends to focus on a challenging topic which he first began to consider before his own college education. Professor Fisher will explore “certain questions about God’s knowledge, what God does not, or might not, know.” According to Professor Fisher, “Anyone who is interested in theology should be interested” in this lecture topic, adding in his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, “And all Houghton students are interested in theology- aren’t they?”
This semester’s upcoming Faculty Lecture Series offer insight on a variety of topics from Houghton professors with years of experience in their disciplines. The faculty presentations are, in the words of Professor Fisher, “enrichment opportunities” amidst the hectic pace of college life.
However, these lectures are not only valuable for students, but as Dr. Congdon noted, this series “provides an important outreach to the wider community—enabling those no longer in school (along with those still in school) to be stimulated and challenged by new ideas or new ways of looking at things.”
Gary Baxter summed up the immense importance of the Faculty Lecture Series by explaining, “I think it is a great way for everyone to access a lifetime’s worth of information in 45 minutes.”