Jill S. Harris Memorial Lecture

The Jill S. Harris Memorial Endowment was established in 1985 by Roger and Meredith Harris, Jill’s parents, her grandparents Allan and Norma Harris, and friends. The fund was established in memory of Jill, a resident of Chicago and undergraduate student at U-M who passed away due to injuries from an auto accident.

The fund brings a distinguished visitor to campus each year who will appeal to undergraduates interested in the humanities and the arts. The visitor may either be a fellow of the institute for an extended period of time or invited for a few days to present the annual lecture. The visiting fellow will usually interact with undergraduates, informally and through visits to classes or by other means by which exchanges with undergraduates may be promoted. 

2024-25 Leah Johnson, "Banned, Bold, and Brave"

2022-23 Moya Bailey, “Black Mirror and Black Feminist Futures or Leticia Wright’s Wrongs?"

2019-20 Rachel Havrelock, “Freshwater Stories: Optics, Governance, and Adaptation around the Great Lakes"

2018-19 Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, "From Domination to Regeneration: Cultivating a New World View in Perilous Times"

2017-18 Yaa Gyasi, "Homegoing"

2016-17 Rebecca Solnit, “Hope and Emergency”

2015-16 Laila Lalami, “Muslims in America: A Forgotten History"

2014-15 Jesmyn Ward, “An Evening with Jesmyn Ward”

2013-14 Tanya Clement, “A Brief History, A Few Principles, and Some Suggestions for Developing a Digital Humanities Undergraduate Curriculum”

2012-13 Lynne Avadenka, “Of the Making of Many Books There is No End"

2011-12 Robert Mankoff, “If you Can’t Say Something Nice then Draw It: the Role of Stereotyping in New Yorker Cartoons”

2010-11 Dennis Davis, “How Legal Culture Suffocated Transformation: A Case Study from South Africa”

2008-09 Wendy Doniger, “Including Dogs, Horses, Cows, Dalis, and Women: Alternative Narrative of the Hindus”

2006-07 Rachid Koraïchi, “20 Years, 12 Poets: Ceramics by Rachid Koraïchi”

2005-06 Robert Pinsky, “The American Small Town: Dreams and Nightmares”

2004-05 Helen Vendler, “The Yeatsian Sequence: ‘Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen’”

2002-03 Goenawan Mohamad, Tony Prabowo, Jarrad Powell, and Kent Devereux, “Kali”

2001-02 Janet Williams, “Current Works”

2000-01 Benjamin Bagby and Ping Chong, “Edda: Viking Tales of Revenge, Lust, and Family”

1999-00 Anne Carson, “Mirror of Simple Souls” Installation

1998-99 Andy Kirshner, “Relive the Magic: An evening with Tony Amore”

1997-98 Joseph Grigely, University of Michigan School of Art and Design, “Show and Tell”

1995-96 Colm Feore

1994-95 Alexander Melamid, “In Search of Real People”

1993-94 Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, “Dinnsheanchas: The Naming of High or Holy Places”

1991-92 Andrew Pinnock, “John Blow’s Venus and Adonis (1861)”

1990-91 Bill T. Jones, “Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land”

1988-89 Douglas Gomery, “Moviegoing in America”