The Dr. S.T. Lee Distinguished Lecture Series in the Humanities brings to the Wolf Humanities Center scholars and artists whose work has advanced our understanding of issues central to the humanities. The series is named for Seng Tee Lee, a business executive and noted philanthropist. Dr. Lee was director of the Lee Group of Companies in Singapore and of the Lee Foundation.
Wolf Humanities Center
Dr. S.T. Lee Distinguished Lectures
2022-2023 Forum on Revolution (November 29, 2023)
From Revolution to Catastrophe: In the Trap of Empire
Keti Chukhrov, philosopher, art theorist, and poet, in conversation with Kevin M.F. Platt, Professor of Russian and East European Studies
2022-2023 Forum on Heritage (November 9, 2022)
Heritage as Poltergeist: A Conversation with Shahzia Sikander
Shahzia Sikander, Pioneering Pakistani American artist in conversation with Jamal J. Elias, Director, Wolf Humanities Center; Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor of the Humanities; Professor of Religious Studies
2021-2022 Forum on Migration (March 16, 2022)
The Life and Letters of Migration
Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Arnold Chair of English and Professor of English, American Studies and Ethnicity and Comparative Literature, University of Southern California
in conversation with Josephine Park, Professor of English, and Dagmawi Woubshet, Ahuja Family Presidential Associate Professor of English
2020-2021 Forum on Choice (postponed until October 21, 2021)
Improvisation
Tyshawn Sorey, Multi-instrumentalist and composer; Presidential Assistant Professor of Music; Marilyn Crispell, Jazz pianist, and composer
in conversation with Guthrie Ramsey, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor of Music
2019-2020 Forum on Kinship (October 16, 2019)
Who Belongs at Home?
Kamila Shamsie, Award-winning Author
in conversation with Emily Wilson, Professor of Classical Studies
2018-2019 Forum on Stuff (September 26, 2018)
Acts, Facts, and Artifacts: The Stuff of Black Culture
Kevin Young, Award-winning Author and Poet; Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
in conversation with Herman Beavers, Professor of English and Africana Studies
2017-2018 Forum on Afterlives (September 27, 2017)
Ghosts, Zombies, and the Afterlives of Slavery
Colson Whitehead, Pulitzer Prize-winning Author
in conversation with Salamishah Tillet, Associate Professor of English and Africana Studies
2016–2017 Forum on Translation (September 14, 2016)
Known and Strange Things
Teju Cole, Distinguished Writer in Residence, Bard College; Photography Critic, The New York Times Magazine
in conversation with Amardeep Singh, Associate Professor of English, Lehigh University
2015–2016 Forum on Sex (September 16, 2015)
What is Appropriate Behavior?
Desiree Akhavan, Filmmaker, Screenwriter, Actor
in conversation with Patricia White, Swarthmore Film & Media Studies
2014–2015 Forum on Color (September 17, 2014)
The Writer's Palette
Zadie Smith, Fiction Writer
in conversation with Jed Esty, Penn English
2013–2014 Forum on Violence (September 25, 2013)
Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Michelle Alexander, Associate Professor of Law, Ohio State University
2012–2013 Forum on Peripheries (October 10, 2012)
Cores and Peripheries in the 21st Century
Immanuel Wallerstein, Senior Research Scholar, Sociology, NYU
2011–2012 Forum on Adaptations (November 30, 2011)
The End of Capitalism?
David Harvey, Distinguished Professor, Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center
2010–2011 Forum on Virtuality (April 6, 2011)
Nature's Revenge
Lorraine Daston, Executive Director, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
2008–2009 Forum on Change (February 11, 2009)
Tragedy is Easy, Comedy is Hard, and Love is Damn Near Impossible
Amy Bloom, Author
2007–2008 Forum on Origins (April 2, 2008)
Original Sin
Elaine Pagels, Historian of Religion, Princeton University
2006–2007 Forum on Travel (October 25, 2006)
Border Crossings
Caryl Phillips, Author
2005–2006 Forum on Word & Image (November 16, 2005)
Public Art
Jenny Holzer, Artist
2004–2005 Forum on Sleep and Dreams (March 15, 2005)
Cutting Cinematic Dreams
Mary Sweeney, Writer, Editor, and Producer
2003–2004 Forum on Belief (February 18, 2004)
Fanaticism, Belief, Empires
Tariq Ali, Writer and Filmmaker
2002–2003 Forum on The Book (March 19, 2003)
How Many Scriptures Became One Bible (and Why the Change Matters)
Jack Miles, Author
2001–2002 Forum on Time (November 28, 2001)
What is History Now?
Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Professor of History, Oxford