Presidential Lecture Series
Upcoming Events
The upcoming lectures in the series will focus on race, in line with the University’s commitment to becoming an antiracist institution. Save the date to hear from the speakers below. Check back for additional registration information, or contact the Kingfisher Institute to be notified when tickets for each become available.
The lecture series is presented in partnership with the Kingfisher Institute for the Liberal Arts and Professions, the Division of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, and the Creighton Intercultural Center. Each talk will also be live-streamed unless otherwise noted. Please contact kingfisher@creighton.edu for any questions.
Edwidge Danticat
Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022 | 7 p.m.
Hixson-Lied Auditorium, Mike and Josie Harper Center
Due to health concerns, only vaccinated faculty, staff and students of Creighton University may attend in person. Pre-registration by Feb. 8 is required, as space is limited. Anyone in the Creighton community or the public may register to view the livestream of the event. A link will be emailed to registrants who select this ticket type.
Edwidge Danticat is the author of numerous books, including Claire of the Sea Light, a The New York Times notable book; “Brother, I’m Dying,” a National Book Critics Circle Award winner and National Book Award finalist; “Breath, Eyes, Memory,” an Oprah Book Club selection; “Krik? Krak!,” a National Book Award finalist; “The Farming of Bones,” an American Book Award winner; “The Dew Breaker,” a PEN/Faulkner Award finalist and winner of the inaugural Story Prize; and “Everything Inside,” a Reese’s Book Club pick and winner of the Story Prize. The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, she has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times and elsewhere. She lives in Miami.
Damon Tweedy, MD
Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022 | 7-8 p.m. CST (virtual) / 6-7 p.m. MST (in person in Phoenix)
Norton Ballroom, Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust Health Sciences Building
Creighton University Health Sciences Campus – Phoenix
Dr. Damon Tweedy, associate professor of psychiatry at Duke University School of Medicine and a staff psychiatrist at the Durham Veteran Affairs Health Care System, is the author of The New York Times bestseller “Black Man in a White Coat.”
Colson Whitehead
Tuesday, March 1, 2022 | 7 p.m.
Due to COVID concerns with traveling, the event will not be held in-person.
Event will be live-streamed.
A versatile modern voice, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner, Colson Whitehead is the author of, most notably, “The Underground Railroad” (recently adapted for Amazon Prime) and “The Nickel Boys.”
Additional funding for this event is provided by the Creighton University A.F. Jacobson Chair in Communication, Office of Alumni Relations & Donor Engagement, John C. Kenefick Faculty Chair in the Humanities, the Department of History, the Division of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion; and the National Park Service Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
Isabel Wilkerson
Tuesday, March 22, 2022 | 7 p.m.
Due to COVID concerns with traveling, the event will not be held in-person.
Event will be live-streamed.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Humanities Medal, Isabel Wilkerson is the author of The New York Times bestsellers “The Warmth of Other Suns” and “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.”
Past Speakers
An Evening with Former Senator and Governor of Nebraska Bob Kerrey
Held Tuesday, October 22, 2019 | 7:30 p.m.
An Evening with Former Secretaries of State
Held Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2018 | 7:30 p.m.
Former Secretaries of State Dr. Madeleine Albright and Gen. Colin Powell appeared together in the Ryan Center for a discussion regarding national and global issues. Suzanne Malveaux, an award-winning journalist with CNN, served as moderator.
An Evening with Julia Alvarez
Held Thursday, September 13, 2018
View the recorded Livestream
Julia Alvarez, who is a Dominican-American poet, novelist and essayist, spoke on campus in 2018, in cooperation with Creighton’s Institute for Latin American Concern. Among her most famous novels are How the García Girls Lost Their Accents and In the Time of the Butterflies.
An Evening with Former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel
Held Tuesday, April 3, 2018.
View the recorded livestream.
