Wednesday, September 25th, marks the date of the Presidential Colloquium, a semiannual lecture series at Hope College where the community is invited to listen to several prestigious scholars speak on the topics of leadership, academy, and global civic engagement. At 4 pm, in Winants Auditorium of Graves Hall, lectures, panel responses drawn from the Hope community, and other campus engagements will be addressed. Admission is free, and the lectures will be followed by a Hope faculty panel discussion and book signing. The colloquium is in association with the inauguration of President John. C. Knapp. President Knapp became the college’s 12th president on July 1st of this year.
The first speaker in the series will be Dr. Richard Carwardine, Abraham Lincoln expert and president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. His talk will be “Abraham Lincoln and the Lessons of Leadership.” His biography, Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power, won the Lincoln Prize in 2004. Copies of this book will be offered at the book signing. In addition to being the president of a constituent college of the renowned University of Oxford since 2010, Dr. Carwardine has been awarded several research awards focused on 19th century American politics and religion from the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust and was appointed Professor of American History in 1994. Dr. Carwardine has published articles and delivered lectures to various audiences from the University of California, Berkeley, to the eastern shore of the Atlantic Ocean. His internationally recognized expertise is not to be missed.
The Van Wylen Library has provided a featured collection of Richard Carwardine’s works, and a selection of other Lincoln related materials available here. There are also many ebooks offered about Lincoln such as “Battle Cry of Freedom: the Civil War Era“, and Abraham Lincoln As a Man of Ideas.
More opportunities to engage in Colloquium related events are offered through the library. At 10 am on Sept. 25th, the Rare Book Reading Room of Van Wylen Library will feature a King James Bible on display, which was partly translated at Corpus Christi College, accompanied by an informal talk by Dr. Carwardine. Also, at 2 pm in the Herrick Room, a presentation on “Abraham Lincoln: Emancipation and Its Legacies in the United States and Abroad” will be given by Dr. Carwardine, featuring an examination of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and its impact thereafter.
by Gemma Davies, student blogger