Since 2001, Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letters has sponsored the Saturday Scholars Lecture Series as a way to reconnect football weekend visitors to the intellectual aspects of the University. These lectures, given by some of the University’s most popular professors, are presented in the Snite Museum’s Annenberg Auditorium at noon on home game Saturdays. No tickets are required for the lectures.

Dayle Seidenspinner-Núñez, professor in the Department of Romance Languages, is the faculty coordinator of the Saturday Scholars program. “Football weekends are a showcase of the University’s athletics prowess,” she says, “But the Saturday Scholars program also allows the University to showcase another distinctive strength of Our Lady’s University—as home to a distinguished faculty of nationally and internationally recognized teacher-scholars.”

The topics of the lectures reflect pressing academic and social issues in a variety of fields. This year’s sessions range from a modern take on Shakespeare to a discussion of the United States’ relationship with Latin America. The audience members interact with the sessions through Q & A periods after the lecture.

For those who missed a Saturday Scholars session last year, videos from the 2008 series are available on the program’s website. Additional Information about this year’s series is available on the Saturday Scholars website, as well.

Remaining Fall 2009 Series Schedule

September 19 (vs. Michigan State University)
“International Security Studies: What the Eggheads Can Teach the Generals”
Michael Desch, Professor and Chairperson, Department of Political Science

October 3 (vs. University of Washington)
“Images That Matter: The U.S. as Seen through Latin American Eyes”
Thomas F. Anderson, Associate Professor, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

October 17 (vs. University of Southern California)
“Shakespeare in the 21st Century”
Peter D. Holland, McMeel Family Professor in Shakespeare Studies, Department of Film, Television, and Theatre; and Scott Jackson, Executive Director, Shakespeare at Notre Dame

October 24 (vs. Boston College)
“The French Revolution, or How to Keep Your Head During Turbulent Times”
Julia V. Douthwaite, Professor, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

*October 31 (vs. Washington State University)
Game and lecture are in San Antonio. Lecture to take place at 10:00 a.m. at the Marriott Rivercenter
“Latinos and the Remapping of American Catholicism”
Virgilio P. Elizondo, Notre Dame Professor of Pastoral and Hispanic Theology, Department of Theology; Daniel G. Groody, C.S.C., Assistant Professor, Department of Theology; and Timothy M. Matovina, Professor, Department of Theology

November 7 (vs. United States Naval Academy)
“Going Global: Medical Ethics in the Age of AIDS”
Maura Ryan, John Cardinal O’Hara Associate Professor of Christian Ethics, Department of Theology

November 21 (vs. University of Connecticut)
“Understanding the Cultural, Religious, and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults (18-23 Year Olds)”
Christian Smith, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology