Welcome to the 2023 season of Great Lives: Biographical Approaches to History and Culture, our 20th anniversary season!
Lectures are open to the public free of charge and begin at 7:30 p.m. in Dodd Auditorium, George Washington Hall, on the Fredericksburg campus of the University of Mary Washington. The auditorium opens at 6:30 p.m. Each lecture concludes with an audience Q&A session with the speaker.
Video recordings of the lectures will be uploaded to this website and will be available in the weeks following the live lectures.
In partnership with the University Bookstore, selected titles related to the topic are available for purchase in the Dodd foyer the night of the lecture. If applicable, a book signing with the author will take place in the foyer following their lecture.
Questions not covered in the FAQ section of this website may be addressed through the “Contact Us” link.
| Date | Lecture | Speaker | Media |
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Lecture | Speaker | Media |
| Jan. 19 | Alan Turing | David Leavitt | |
| Jan. 24 | Shirley Jackson | Ruth Franklin | |
| Jan. 26 | Thomas Paine | Craig Nelson | |
| Feb. 2 | Gladys West, Technology Pioneer | Karen Sherry | |
| Feb. 7 | Fannie Lou Hamer, Civil Rights Activist | Kate Clifford Larson | |
| Feb. 14 | Ted Kennedy | John A. Farrell | |
| Feb. 16 | J. Edgar Hoover | Beverly Gage | |
| Feb. 23 | Rembrandt | Marjorie Och | |
| Mar. 2 | Magellan | Laurence Bergreen | |
| Mar. 7 | Sandra Day O’Connor | Evan Thomas | |
| Mar. 9 | The Transcendentalists | Robert A. Gross | |
| Mar. 14 | Anne Frank | Rosemary Sullivan | |
| Mar. 16 | Lafayette | Mike Duncan | |
| Mar. 21 | Queen Isabella | Kirstin Downey | |
| Mar. 23 | Bruce Springsteen | Peter Ames Carlin | |
| Mar. 28 | Colin Powell | Karen DeYoung |