Two professors spoke to a crowd of about 100 students and faculty members yesterday evening in Old Cabell Hall as part of the 19th annual Last Lecture Series.
Each year, two professors are invited to attend the program and give half-hour lectures to the audience about a topic of their choosing as though it were their last opportunity to speak to the University.
"It's usually about a subject they're very passionate about, something they want to convey to students or they've been engaged with in their career," said Zoe Hardy, second-year College student and one of the event's organizers.
This year's speakers were Robert Fatton, the Julia A. Cooper professor of government and foreign affairs, and Richard Handler, director of the Global Development Studies program and professor of anthropology. The Last Lecture Committee, comprised of students, chose the professors out of a large group of prospective lecturers.
"We thought, 'who would be an engaging speaker?'" Hardy explained. "We chose them because we thought they would be interesting and [would] draw a wide variety of students."
Fatton spoke first, beginning by addressing how it feels to give a "last lecture."
"For someone like me, there is something ominous about facing an audience for the very last time," said Fatton, who then joked that "few people can die in style, in front of a captive audience."
He used the platform to address what he called the threats facing the next generation.
"My view is embedded in the current world system from Columbus' encounter in the Americas," Fatton said. "It is this system that gave us imperialism, or its current form, globalization."
Fatton spoke of the disparities in wealth between the United States and the developing world, and consequences such as disease, famine and violence.
"As a political scientist and concerned human being with little time left, I would be dishonest if I did not speak about this," Fatton said.
The lecture gave Fatton an opportunity to challenge his audience to understand, and thus improve the current global economic and political structure.
"People have to understand that the status quo is deadly," Fatton said. "They have to find new ways of producing, consuming and sharing."
Handler followed his colleague with a lecture titled "Undergoing a Vivisection Without an Anesthetic: What is Critical Thinking?"
First he acknowledged the difficulties of shrinking an entire course into a 30-minute time span.
"I view it that lectures are performances," Handler said. "Tonight is a performance of a performance."
Handler used his background in anthropology to explain the process of thinking in today's University for students, or "modern natives."
"You sample different departments and learn that different disciplines see differently about what reality is and how you think critically about it," Handler said.
After providing examples ranging from language barriers to the notion of a playing field in American sports, Handler returned to the central theme of his lecture.
"I try to teach students about all the things they know and never thought about," Handler said. "Critical thinking is thinking consciously about the things we do unconsciously."
The event's organizers were encouraged by the lectures and believed their efforts had an effect on the audience.
"Hopefully the students will figure out real useful information and take to heart the messages the professors gave," Hardy said.
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