The Ryerson Lectures

The 2024 Nora and Edward Ryerson Lecture was presented by Jonathan Lear, the John U. Nef Distinguished Service Professor, Committee on Social Thought and in the Department of Philosophy. Delivered on April 2, 2024, at Friedman Hall, Rubenstein Forum. Lear's talk, titled "Gratitude, Mourning, Hope and Other Forms of Thought," explored the complexities of expressing gratitude. Lear is a distinguished scholar of philosophy and ethics, and his research examines how we make sense of who we are and our ethical obligations to each other. The Ryerson Lectures originated through a bequest from Nora and Edward Ryerson. Read more about the history Nora and Edward L. Ryerson here: ➡ Subscribe: About #UChicago: Since its founding in 1890, the University of Chicago has been a destination for rigorous inquiry and field-defining research. This transformative academic experience empowers students and scholars to challenge conventional thinking in pursuit of original ideas. #UChicago on the Web: Home: N

In the 2023 Nora and Edward Ryerson Lecture at the University of Chicago, Prof. Wendy Freedman recounts how she landed in astronomy, how we first became aware that the universe is expanding over time, and how she makes groundbreaking new precise measurements of how fast the universe is expanding. Freedman is the John and Marion Sullivan University Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at UChicago. She is an observational cosmologist, using telescope measurements to better understand how the universe was born and developed over time. In particular, she specializes in measuring the Hubble Constant. The Ryerson Lecture grew out of a 1972 bequest to the University by Nora and Edward L. Ryerson, the latter a former Board of Trustees chair. A faculty committee selects the Ryerson lecturer based on research contributions of lasting significance. ➡ Subscribe: About #UChicago: Since its founding in 1890, the University of Chicago has been a destination for rigorous inquiry and field-defining

The 2022 Nora and Edward Ryerson Lecture was presented by Cathy J. Cohen, the David and Mary Winton Green Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Political Science and the College. Cathy is also the inaugural chair for the new Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity. Her Ryerson Lecture—titled “Democratic Futures?: Race, Resistance and Political Vulnerability” examines what political insights and possibilities might emerge when we center the ideas of race and vulnerability. Throughout her career, Cohen has produced groundbreaking scholarship at the intersection of race, class, politics and sexuality. She has sought to understand the challenges faced by young people and their social and political perspectives as a means of understanding the broader political situation in the United States. The Ryerson Lectures grew out of a 1972 bequest to the University by Nora and Edward L. Ryerson, a former Chairman of the Board. The faculty selects each Ryerson Lecturer based on a

The 2019 Nora and Edward Ryerson Lecture: Michael Silverstein & Constantine V. Nakassis The Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology, Linguistics and Psychology, Michael Silverstein is known for his interdisciplinary research on language-in-use as a social and cultural practice—conducted over nearly five decades at the University of Chicago. He also has done fieldwork on Native language speakers of the Pacific Northwest and of Aboriginal Australia. Entitled “Getting—and Getting Across—the Message,” Silverstein's lecture explored “the ways in which verbal messages, among other modes of communication, do sociocultural work, structuring our worlds of quotidian experience and cosmic belief, from interpersonal interaction to political messaging and beyond.” A prestigious tradition celebrating the scholarly work of a UChicago faculty member, the 2019 Ryerson Lecture took place Oct. 24 in Mandel Hall. Because Silverstein was absent from the venue due to illness, his wor

In the 2015 Nora and Edward Ryerson Lecture, Geoffrey R. Stone, the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, explores historical attitudes to homosexuality, how laws discriminating against homosexuals first came to be seen as raising possible constitutional questions, and how the nation’s high court has come to the threshold of recognizing a constitutional right of same-sex couples to marry. ➡ Subscribe: About #UChicago: Since its founding in 1890, the University of Chicago has been a destination for rigorous inquiry and field-defining research.This transformative academic experience empowers students and scholarsto challenge conventional thinking in pursuit of original ideas. #UChicago on the Web: Home: News: Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: University of Chicago on YouTube: /uchicago *** ACCESSIBILITY: If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please email digicomm@uchic

Jean Comaroff, an anthropologist who is a leading expert on South Africa, its societies and cultures, gave the 2011 Nora and Edward Ryerson Lecture on Tuesday, May 17, at the Max Palevsky Cinema in Ida Noyes Hall. Comaroff, the Bernard E. and Ellen C. Sunny Distinguished Service Professor in Anthropology and the College at the University of Chicago, presented the talk, "Divine Detection: Crime and the Metaphysics of Disorder. For more information visit: ➡ Subscribe: About #UChicago: Since its founding in 1890, the University of Chicago has been a destination for rigorous inquiry and field-defining research. This transformative academic experience empowers students and scholars to challenge conventional thinking in pursuit of original ideas. #UChicago on the Web: Home: News: Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: University of Chicago on YouTube: /uchicago *** ACCESSIBILITY: If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, pleas

Pioneering University of Chicago cosmologist Michael S. Turner focuses his remarks on "the Chicago School of Cosmology," from Edwin Hubble and George Ellery Hale to the present. Hubble, SB 1910, PhD 1917, discovered that the universe consists of billions of galaxies and that it has been expanding since it began in a big bang. Hale was the first chairman of the University's Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics. He also founded Yerkes Observatory, which under his leadership developed the big reflecting telescopes that are the workhorses of optical astronomy today, making discoveries from the expanding universe to planets orbiting other stars.Turning to more recent times, Turner discusses efforts that started in the 1980s at UChicago to establish the new field of particle astrophysics and cosmology. At that time, the Chicago School, consisting primarily of the late David Schramm, Edward "Rocky" Kolb, the Arthur Holly Compton Distinguished Service Professor in Astronomy and Astrophysic

The Nora and Edward Ryerson Lecture 2014 at the University of Chicago featured John A. Goldsmith, the Edward Carson Waller Distinguished Service Professor in the Departments of Linguistics and Computer Science and the College, and Senior Fellow in the Computation Institute, who spoke on "Language and the Mind: Encounters in the Mind Fields." ➡ Subscribe: About #UChicago: Since its founding in 1890, the University of Chicago has been a destination for rigorous inquiry and field-defining research.This transformative academic experience empowers students and scholarsto challenge conventional thinking in pursuit of original ideas. #UChicago on the Web: Home: News: Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: University of Chicago on YouTube: /uchicago *** ACCESSIBILITY: If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please email digicomm@uchicago.edu.

Martha C. Nussbaum 2008 Nora and Edward Ryerson Lecture: “Equal Respect for Conscience: The Roots of a Moral and Legal Tradition" May 14, 2008 A bequest from Trustee Edward L. Ryerson, Jr., was the catalyst for the Ryerson Lecture series. Upon receiving the bequest, President Edward Levi suggested to the Board of Trustees that a fund be established to support special faculty lectures. The board approved this suggestion and voted to name the lecture series in honor of Nora and Edward Ryerson for their many years of outstanding service to the University. Mr. Ryerson had served as a Trustee and then Life Trustee of the University from 1923 to 1971 and as Chairman of the Board from 1953 to 1958. Mrs. Ryerson was also active in University affairs and was a founding member of the Women's Board.The involvement of the Ryerson family in the lecture series was continued by the late Life Trustee George A. Ranney, who was Nora and Edward Ryerson's son-in-law. Today, the family is represented by Ge

In this Nora and Edward Ryerson Lecture, Susan Goldin-Meadow explores the resilience of language and gesture in the way people communicate. Susan Goldin-Meadow is the Beardsley Ruml Distinguished Service Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Comparative Human Development, Center for East Asian Studies, and the College at the University of Chicago. The Ryerson Lecture grew out of a 1972 bequest to the University by Nora and Edward L. Ryerson, the latter a former Board of Trustees chair. A faculty committee selects the Ryerson lecturer based on research contributions of lasting significance. ➡ Subscribe: About #UChicago: Since its founding in 1890, the University of Chicago has been a destination for rigorous inquiry and field-defining research.This transformative academic experience empowers students and scholarsto challenge conventional thinking in pursuit of original ideas. #UChicago on the Web: Home: News: Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: University of Chicago on YouTube: /uchi