Famous Lecturers

Mark Twain, born Samuel Clemens in 1835 in Missouri, USA, is a celebrated American literary figure. He spent his childhood in Hannibal, a river town that later became the setting for his famous novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. These novels offer insight into pre-Civil War American society. Twain worked as a printer, riverboat pilot, journalist, and lecturer.

Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was an American author, activist, and lecturer. She became the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. Her story with her teacher, Anne Sullivan, gained fame through her autobiography, The Story of My Life, and film and stage adaptations like The Miracle Worker. Her birthplace in West Tuscumbia, Alabama, is now a museum that sponsors an annual "Helen Keller Day". Her birthday, June 27, is celebrated as Helen Keller Day in Pennsylvania. In the year of her birth's centenary, a president recognized her achievements.

Ralph Nader is an actor who appeared in "An Unreasonable Man," "Inside Edition," and "Tell the Truth and Run: George Seldes and the American Press."

Gregory Walter Graffin, Ph.D (born November 6, 1964) is an American punk rock singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, college lecturer, and author. He is most recognized as the lead vocalist, songwriter, and only constant member of the noted Los Angeles band Bad Religion, which he co-founded in 1980. He also embarked on a solo career in 1997, when he released the album American Lesion. His follow-up album, Cold as the Clay was released nine years later. Graffin obtained his PhD in the history of science at Cornell University and has lectured courses in natural sciences at both the University

Beverley June Hughes, Baroness Hughes of Stretford (born 30 March 1950) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Stretford and Urmston from 1997 to 2010. In 2004, she was appointed to the Privy Council. From 2005 to 2009, she served in the Government as the Minister of State for Children, Young People and Families.On 6 May 2017, Hughes was appointed as Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime by Greater Manchester Combined Authority Mayor, and former Shadow Home Secretary, Andy Burnham.

A contemplative, blue-eyed lead with classically sculpted features, Peter Weller gained stage experience with notable performances in David Rabe's "Streamers" and David Mamet's "The Woods". He entered film in 1979 and, though best known for his roles in the deadpan cult favorite "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai" (1984) and as the armor-clad title character of "RoboCop" (1987) and its first sequel, "RoboCop 2" (1990), Weller has also been effective in more character-driven dramas such as "Shoot the Moon" (1981) and David Cronenberg's fascinatingly bizarre "Naked Lunch" (1991).

Maya Deren (April 29, 1917 – October 13, 1961), born Eleonora Derenkowska (Ukrainian: Елеоно́ра Деренко́вська), was a Ukrainian-born American experimental filmmaker and important promoter of the avant-garde in the 1940s and 1950s. Deren was also a choreographer, dancer, film theorist, poet, lecturer, writer, and photographer. The function of film, Deren believed, was to create an experience. She combined her interests in dance, Haitian Vodou and subjective psychology in a series of surreal, perceptual, black-and-white short films. Using editing, multiple exposures, jump-cutting, superimpositio

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (; née Perkins; July 3, 1860 – August 17, 1935), also known as Charlotte Perkins Stetson, her first married name, was a prominent American humanist, novelist, writer of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction, and a lecturer for social reform. She was a utopian feminist and served as a role model for future generations of feminists because of her unorthodox concepts and lifestyle. She has been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. Her best remembered work today is her semi-autobiographical short story "The Yellow Wallpaper", which she wrote after a severe bout

Ian Campbell Bradley (born 28 May 1950) is a retired British academic, author, theologian, Church of Scotland minister, journalist and broadcaster. At the University of St Andrews, he was Professor of Cultural and Spiritual History, and was previously Principal of St Mary's College and a University chaplain. He also served as the associate minister of Holy Trinity Church, St Andrews.He has researched and written widely on religious matters, from Celtic Christianity to the future of spirituality in Britain. In addition, he has published works on the subjects of hymnody, monarchy, the Victorian

Born Carlton Douglas Ridenhour on August 1, 1960, Chuck D is an influential figure in music. He is known as a rapper, author, and producer. He grew up in Queens, New York. His passion for music developed within the early hip hop culture there. Chuck D co-founded Public Enemy. This rap group later changed the hip-hop genre using politically charged lyrics and innovative production techniques. People respect Chuck D's talent for using music as a social commentary platform. His hard-hit

Robin Morgan was born January 29, 1941. She is an American poet, author, political theorist, activist, journalist, lecturer, and former child actor. Since the early 1960s, she has been a key radical feminist member of the American Women's Movement and a leader in the international feminist movement. Her 1970 anthology, *Sisterhood is Powerful*, helped start the contemporary feminist movement in the US. The New York Public Library cited it as "One of the 100 Most Influential Books of the 20th Century." She has written more than 20 books of poetry, fiction, and.

Colm Tóibín (Irish pronunciation: [ˈkɔl̪ˠəmˠ t̪ˠoːˈbʲiːnʲ]; born 30 May 1955) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, journalist, critic, and poet. He currently serves as the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University. Tóibín succeeded Martin Amis as professor of creative writing at the University of Manchester. In 2017, he was appointed Chancellor of the University of Liverpool. Mary Cloake, director of the Arts Council, called him "a champion of minorities" after he collected the 2011 Irish PEN Award. John Naughton of The Observer included Tóibín in that same award.

James Edward O'Keefe III was born June 28, 1984, and is an American conservative political activist. He produces secretly recorded audio and video encounters with figures and workers in academic, governmental, and social service organizations. These recordings purport to show abusive or illegal behavior by those employees or representatives. Critics have attacked him for editing videos to misrepresent the context of conversations and responses, creating false impressions.

Edwin George Morgan (27 April 1920 – 17 August 2010) was a Scottish poet and translator who was associated with the Scottish Renaissance. He is widely recognised as one of the foremost Scottish poets of the 20th century. In 1999, Morgan was made the first Glasgow Poet Laureate. In 2004, he was named as the first Scottish national poet: The Scots Makar.

The "sit-down" comedy of Shelley Berman - so named for his frequent position on stage, perched on a stool as he reeled off anxious, neurotic monologues that embodied the minor tragedies of everyday life - was a major force in transforming the tone and focus of comedy in the mid-1950s from broad slapstick and joke-driven material to humor drawn from character foibles and all-too-real scenarios. Born Sheldon Leonard Berman on February 3, 1925 in Chicago, Illinois, he intended to become a serious actor, studying at Chicago's Goodman Theatre after serving in World War II. He married fellow student

Lalith William Samarasekera Athulathmudali, PC (Sinhala:ලලිත් ඇතුලත්මුදලි; 26 November 1936 – 23 April 1993), known as Lalith Athulathmudali, was Sri Lankan statesman. He was a prominent member of the United National Party, who served as Minister of Trade and Shipping; Minister National Security and Deputy Minister of Defence; Minister of Agriculture, Food and Cooperatives and finally Minister of Education. Following a failed impeachment of President Premadasa, he was removed from the UNP and formed his own party.

Sir Goldsworthy Gurney (14 February 1793 – 28 February 1875) was an English surgeon, chemist, lecturer, consultant, architect, builder. He was a prototypical British gentleman scientist and inventor of the Victorian era. Amongst many accomplishments, he developed the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe, and later applied its principles to a novel form of illumination, the Bude light; developed a series of early steam-powered road vehicles; and laid claim—still discussed and disputed today—to the blastpipe, a key component in the success of steam locomotives, engines, and other coal-fired systems. Events sur

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar CIE (26 September 1820 – 29 July 1891), born Ishwar Chandra Bandyopadhyay (Ishshor Chôndro Bôndopaddhae), was a Bengali polymath from the Indian subcontinent, and a key figure of the Bengal Renaissance. He was a philosopher, academic educator, writer, translator, printer, publisher, entrepreneur, reformer and philanthropist. His efforts to simplify and modernize Bengali prose were significant. He also rationalized and simplified the Bengali alphabet and type, which had remained unchanged since Charles Wilkins and Panchanan Karmakar had cut the first (wooden) Bengali t

Alan George Heywood Melly (17 August 1926 – 5 July 2007) was an English jazz and blues singer, critic, writer and lecturer. From 1965 to 1973 he was a film and television critic for The Observer and lectured on art history, with an emphasis on surrealism.

James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1997 to 2007. Brown was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1983 to 2015, first for Dunfermline East and later for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. A doctoral graduate of the University of Edinburgh, Brown spent his early career working as both a lecturer at a further education college and a television journalist. He entered Parliament in 1983 as the MP for Dunfermline East. He joined the Shadow Ca

Reginald Hugh Hickling, known as Hugh Hickling, was a British lawyer, civil servant, law academic, and author, and author of the controversial Internal Security Act of colonial Malaysia. Born in Derby, England, Hickling served from 1941 until 1946 in the British Royal Navy during World War II, and then joined the Colonial Legal Service. In 1955, Hickling was posted to Malaya, where he gained prominence as a lawmaker. He drafted the Constitution of Malaysia, and as Commissioner of Law Revision wrote the Internal Security Act of 1960, which provided for the detention of persons without trial. Th

James Lafayette Dickey (February 2, 1923 – January 19, 1997) was an American poet and novelist. He was appointed the eighteenth United States Poet Laureate in 1966. He also received the Order of the South award. Dickey was best known for his novel Deliverance (1970) which was adapted into an acclaimed film of the same name.

Sidónio Bernardino Cardoso da Silva Pais CavC OA CavA (pronounced [siˈdɔniu ˈpajʃ]; 1 May 1872 – 14 December 1918) was a Portuguese politician, military officer, and diplomat, who served as the fourth President of the First Portuguese Republic in 1918. One of the most divisive figures in modern Portuguese history, he was referred to by the writer Fernando Pessoa as the "President-King", a description that stuck in later years and symbolizes his regime.

Elizabeth Clare Prophet (née: Wulf, a.k.a. Guru Ma) (April 8, 1939 – October 15, 2009) was an American spiritual leader, author, orator, and writer. In 1963 she married Mark L. Prophet(after ending her first marriage), who had founded The Summit Lighthouse in 1958. Mark and Elizabeth had four children. Elizabeth, just 33 years of age at the time of her second husband's death on February 26, 1973, assumed control of The Summit Lighthouse.In 1975 Prophet founded Church Universal and Triumphant, which became the umbrella organisation for the movement, and which she expanded worldwide. She also fo

C-drík is a vegan artist, academically trained musician, dj, singer, composer and drummer. He is a former student of electro-acoustic composer Annette Vande Gorne.

Patricia Hampl (born March 12, 1946) is an American memoirist, writer, lecturer, and educator. She teaches in the MFA program at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis and is one of the founding members of the Loft Literary Center.

Susan Jane Blackmore (born 29 July 1951) is a British writer, lecturer, sceptic, broadcaster, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Plymouth. Her fields of research include memetics, parapsychology, consciousness, and she is best known for her book The Meme Machine. She has written or contributed to over 40 books and 60 scholarly articles and is a contributor to The Guardian newspaper.

DeMaurice F. Smith is a Washington attorney that was voted to become the executive director of the NFL Players Association in March 15, 2009. succeeding the late Gene Upshaw.

John Garrett is an Australian/British photojournalist whose work is mainly on fashion, reportage and photojournalism. He has covered situations and exhibited widely and is the author of many books.

Jan Karski (24 June 1914 – 13 July 2000) was a Polish World War II resistance-movement soldier, and later a professor at Georgetown University. In 1940–43 Karski reported to the Polish Government-in-Exile and to Poland's Western Allies about the situation in German-occupied Poland, especially about Germany's destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto and about Germany's extermination camps on Polish soil that were murdering Jews, ethnic Poles, and other nationalities.

James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British Labour politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1964 to 1970 and 1974 to 1976. Entering Parliament in 1945, Wilson was appointed a parliamentary secretary in the Attlee ministry and rose quickly through the ministerial ranks; he became Secretary for Overseas Trade in 1947 and was elevated to Cabinet shortly thereafter as President of the Board of Trade. In opposition to the next Conservative government, he served as Shadow Chancellor (1955–1961) and Shadow Foreign Secretary (196

William H 'Doc' Eason (born July 22, 1947) is an American magician who specializes in bar magic. For 27 years, he was the featured entertainer at John Denver's World Famous Tower Comedy/ Magic Bar in Snowmass Village, CO. (1977–2004). He is also a corporate entertainer, lecturer, public speaker, author, teacher, consultant and recently was involved in the Fox TV show "Masters of Illusion". He talks to corporate and association groups about "The Therapy of Laughter" and connecting with customers. Widely recognized as one of the premier bar magicians of our time, he has lectured on the subject a

Eugene Burger (June 1, 1939 – August 8, 2017) was an American magician. He was born in 1939 and was based in Chicago, Illinois. He was reputed for his close-up skills and his work in mentalism and bizarre magic.Burger was also a philosopher and a historian of religion. He had degrees in philosophy and earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1964 from Yale University and taught university courses in comparative religion and philosophy. Burger frequently taught at the McBride Magic & Mystery School in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was the author of books on the presentation of close up magic and was fea

Jessica Stern is an American policy consultant on terrorism. Stern is a lecturer at Harvard University and a fellow at Harvard School of Public Health. She serves on the Hoover Institution Task Force on National Security and Law. In 2001, she was featured in Time Magazine's series on Innovators. In 2009, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for her work on trauma and violence. She is currently a 2014–2015 Fulbright Scholar.

Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was New Zealand's fifth-longest-serving prime minister, and the second woman to hold that office.Clark was brought up on a farm outside Hamilton. She entered the University of Auckland in 1968 to study politics, and became active in the New Zealand Labour Party. After graduating she lectured in political studies at the university. Clark entered local politics

Frances Clarke Sayers (September 4, 1897 – June 24, 1989) was an American children's librarian, author of children's books, and lecturer on children's literature. American Libraries named her one of the "100 Most Important Leaders We Had in the 20th Century" in 1999.

Matt the Knife (also called MTK; born 1988) was born in Massachusetts and grew up in Boston. He now resides in Rhode Island. Matt the Knife is a magician and mentalist who has broken several Guinness World Records. He began his career as a professional con man.

Liviu Librescu (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈlivju liˈbresku]; Hebrew: ליביו ליברסקו‎; August 18, 1930 – April 16, 2007) was a Romanian–American scientist and engineer. A prominent academic in addition to being a survivor of the Holocaust, his major research fields were aeroelasticity and aerodynamics. Librescu is most widely known for his actions during the Virginia Tech shooting, when he held the doors to his lecture hall closed, allowing all but one of his students enough time to escape through the windows. Shot and killed during the attack, Librescu was posthumously awarded the Order of the S

Henry J. Abraham is an American scholar on the judiciary and constitutional law. He is James Hart Professor of Government Emeritus at the University of Virginia. He is the author of 13 books, most in multiple editions, and more than 100 articles on the U.S. Supreme Court, judicial appointments, judicial process, and civil rights and liberties.

Frank Harte was a traditional Irish singer, song collector, architect and lecturer. He was born in Chapelizod, County Dublin, and raised in Dublin. His father, Peter Harte, who had moved from a farming background in Sligo, owned 'The Tap' pub in Chapelizod. Frank emigrated to the United States for a short period, but later returned to Ireland where he worked as an architect, lecturer at DIT in Rathmines, Dublin and in later life fully engaged in songs in many ways.

Marianne J. Legato, MD, FACP, is an internationally known academic physician, author, and lecturer and globally recognized expert in gender-specific medicine, the science of how normal human function and the experience of the same disease vary as a function of gender/biological sex. Legato is an expert on the sex-specific aspects of men's and women's health and is the founder and director of the Partnership for Gender-Specific Medicine at Columbia University. In 2008, she established the non-profit Foundation for Gender-Specific Medicine. She has devoted much of her research to the subject of

Barbara Branden (née Weidman; May 14, 1929 – December 11, 2013) was a Canadian-American writer, editor, and lecturer, known for her relationship and subsequent break with novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand.

Mohammad-Reza Shajarian (Persian: محمدرضا شجريان‎; Persian pronunciation: [mohæmːæd ɾeˈzɒː ʃædʒæɾiˈɒːn]) (born 23 September 1940) is an Iranian classical singer, composer and Ostad (master) of Persian traditional music. He has been called "Iran's greatest living maestro of Persian classical music." Shajarian is also known for his skills in Persian calligraphy, and humanitarian activities. Shajarian was born in Mashhad, Iran, and started singing at the age of five, under the supervision of his father. At the age of twelve, he began studying the traditional classical repertoire known as the Radi

KRS-One was born Lawrence Parker on August 20, 1965, in the South Bronx, New York City. He is an influential figure in hip-hop. Known as The Teacha, he shaped the genre and made significant contributions to its development since entering the music scene in the mid-1980s. Raised in the cultural melting pot of the Bronx, KRS-One was inspired by hip-hop's birth. This inspiration led him to adopt the moniker Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone. KRS-One’s career followed an extraordinary trajectory.

L. Hunter Lovins (née Sheldon, born 1950) is an American environmentalist, author, sustainable development proponent, co-founder of Rocky Mountain Institute, and president of the nonprofit organization Natural Capitalism Solutions.

Anastasia Katherine "Anna" Donald (née Courtice; 7 April 1966 – 1 February 2009) was an Australian pioneer in the field of evidence-based medicine as well as an epidemiologist and company director.

Juliette N. Kayyem (born August 16, 1969) is an American businessperson, author and host of the WGBH podcast The SCIF. She serves as a national security analyst for CNN and is a weekly guest on Boston Public Radio. She is the Belfer Lecturer in International Security at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, a member of Secretary Jeh Johnson’s Homeland Security Advisory Council, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Pacific Council on International Policy. She is a former candidate for Governor of Massachusetts and a former Boston Globe columnist, writing about

David Salzer Broder (September 11, 1929 – March 9, 2011), was an American journalist, writing for The Washington Post for over 40 years. He was also an author, television news show pundit, and university lecturer. For more than half a century, Broder reported on every presidential campaign, beginning with the 1956 Eisenhower–Stevenson race. Known as the "dean" of the Washington, D.C., press corps, Broder made over 400 appearances on NBC's Meet the Press. The Forbes Media Guide Five Hundred, 1994 stated in 1994: "Broder is the best of an almost extinct species, the daily news reporter who doubl

Sylvia Earle is an actress who appeared in "The 11th Hour," and "Mission Blue."

Michael Ammar (born June 25, 1956) is an American close-up magician. He is recognized worldwide as one of the greatest living magicians.