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2007 - 2008 Dr. James
Borland Convocation Series
For more information,
please contact the Office of Academic Affairs
by phone or e-mail at 517-265-5161 x4466 or
lsimon@adrian.edu.
 Senator
Carl Levin
Opening Fall Convocation
Sunday, September 9, 2007
2 P.M., Herrick Chapel
Senator Carl Levin is the
senior Senator from Michigan. In 1978, he
won an upset victory over the number two Republican
in the U.S. Senate. He was reelected in 1984,
1990, 1996 and 2002.
More at http://levin.senate.gov/
 Daniel
Tammet
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
12 P.M., Dawson Auditorium
The key to unlocking the
secrets of autism may lie in the head of Daniel
Tammet. A high-functioning autistic savant
(think Rain Man), Tammet is unique in his
ability to articulate his savant experience—he
sees numbers as complex shapes with color,
texture and motion, and hears people's voices
as radio static.
In his bestselling memoir,
Born on a Blue Day, he explains in vivid detail
the inner workings of his brain, which has
been studied by scientists from California
to the UK. The book, along with the documentary
Brainman, which shows him reciting Pi to over
22,000 digits, has made him the subject of
intense scientific and media attention worldwide.
In his powerful presentations,
he shares his unique journey in overcoming
and coping with autism, and uses his experiences
to explore the human mind in all of its wonder
and complexity. Tammet challenges us to think
about how society treats those who are different,
and ultimately affirms that what binds us
all in our humanity may be the very differences
we often try so hard to ignore.
Richard Alley
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
12 PM, Dawson Auditorium
Dr. Alley's current research
interests are with ice
sheets and climates, and include the following:
- Interpretation of paleoclimatic
records from ice cores
- Abrupt climate changes
- Physical properties
of ice cores
- Ice-sheet collapse and
sea-level change
- Erosion and sedimentation
by ice sheet
 Kathy
Kosins
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
12 PM, Dawson Auditorium
Critically acclaimed voice,
eclectic musical palette, recipient of the
2001 Michigan council of the Arts/Artserve
Michigan Jazz Composers Awards, six-time ASCAP
Award winning songwriter and Jazz educator
define Kathy Kosins the Jazz artist.
Mark
Taylor
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
12 PM, Dawson Auditorium
 Mark
Lewis Taylor is the Maxwell M. Upson Professor
of Theology and Culture at Princeton Theological
Seminary. He is author of The Executed God:
The Way of the Cross in Lockdown America (Fortress
Press, 2001) and Remembering Esperanza: A
Cultural-Political Theology for North American
Praxis. He is also editor of Paul Tillich:
Theologian of the Boundaries (Fortress Press,
1991) and co-editor of Reconstructing Christian
Theology (Fortress Press, 1994). He earned
his M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary
in Virginia, and his Ph.D. from the University
of Chicago. A member of the Presbyterian Church,
he frequently teaches and lectures in churches
and supports church communities in their efforts
to organize on justice and peace issues. Since
1987, he has studied regularly in Guatemala
and Chiapas, Mexico, where he analyzes the
cultural and political dynamics of the churches
as they move closer to a contextualized Mayan
theology that also facilitates resistance
to military repression. He is coordinator
for Educators for Mumia Abu-Jamal. His regular
teaching duties focus on the theologies of
Paul Tillich and Gustavo Gutierrez, with full
courses also on ethnocentrism as theological
challenge, feminist and womanist theologies,
empire and capital in theological perspective,
and cultural-political hermeneutics.
Davar
Ardalan
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
12 PM, Dawson Auditorium
 "My
name is Iran. Iran Davar Ardalan. Like the
country I'm named for, my life has been filled
with contradictions." In her fearless
memoir, My Name is Iran, Davar Ardalan offers
a bracing look at the struggle for change
in modern Iran, one of the world's most discussed
but least understood countries. Publishers
Weekly calls the book, "a supreme achievement."
My Name is Iran traces Ardalan's
personal journey, at the age of eighteen,
from the suburbs of Massachusetts to revolutionary
Iran, where she previously lived under both
the Shah's reign and that of the Ayatollahs—and
where she would live, upon her return, as
a devout Muslim in an arranged marriage. My
Name is Iran also tells the story of three
generations of women in Ardalan's family,
who all moved between Iran and America. She
uses their accomplishments and setbacks, as
well as her own, to explore the troubled relationship
between these two countries, the struggle
for a lawful society in Iran, the role of
women in Islam and what being a good Muslim
means in the new millennium.
Davar Ardalan dabbled in
modeling in America and anchored television
news in Tehran. Her great grandfather, Iran's
Minister of Justice from 1927-1932, helped
to write Iran's legal code. Ardalan is currently
an award-winning senior producer at NPR News.
For over a decade there she has covered topics
ranging from girls in New York gangs to Islam
in cyberspace. In 2004, she produced a critically
acclaimed series, "My Name is Iran,"
the impetus for her memoir. That same year,
she spoke at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum.
Stephen Hayes
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
12 PM, Dawson Auditorium
 Stephen
F. Hayes is an award winning political journalist
from D.C. and is best known for his writings
in The Weekly Standard. He is the author of
the only authorized biography of Vice President
Cheney, Cheney: The Untold Story of America's
Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President.
Before joining The Weekly Standard, Hayes
was a senior writer for National Journal's
Hotline. He also served for six years as Director
of the Institute on Political Journalism at
Georgetown University. His work has appeared
in the New York Post, the Washington Times,
Salon, National Review, and Reason. He has
been a commentator on CNN, The McLaughlin
Group, the Fox News Channel, MSNBC, CNBC,
and C-SPAN. A graduate of Columbia University
Graduate School of Journalism and DePauw University,
Hayes was born and raised in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.
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