Annual Robertson Memorial Lecture Series

Overview and Purpose

Established in 2011 through a generous gift to the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, the James and Jean Robertson Memorial Lecture supports an annual or biennial lecture in the Residential College focused on issues in education and the liberal arts. The lecture honors James H. Robertson, the RC’s founding director, and his wife, Jean B. Robertson.

Now in its second decade, the Robertson Lecture serves as a vital intellectual and cultural moment in the RC calendar. It brings leading thinkers, educators, artists, writers, and practitioners into public conversation with our students, faculty, and community on topics that resonate across disciplines and time.

Lectures are designed to:

Spark dialogue on the value and future of liberal arts education
Explore how creativity, scholarship, and teaching intersect
Highlight the intellectual legacy of the RC and its alumni
Offer students live engagement with prominent scholars and artists
Create space for community learning and reflection

Lectures 2012-present

Since 2012, the Residential College has hosted 14 Robertson Memorial Lectures featuring authors, activists, artists, scholars, and more. Below is an overview of the lectures including the year, speaker, lecture title, and key themes.

Year	Speaker	Title	Key Themes
2024 (Fall)	Anne Savageau, Artist, Activist, former RC faculty	Art is the Highest Form of Hope: Sixty years of teaching, studio practice, activism, and life	Art, activism, identity, grief and memory, resilience
2024 (Winter)	Nandi Comer, Michigan Poet Laureate	Tapping In	Poetry, identity, Detroit history, intersectionality
2023	Cydney Seigerman, PhD candidate (RC alum)	Water, Power, and Performance	Environmental anthropology, dramatic performance, interdisciplinary research
2022	Joseph Behen, Clinical Psychologist	College Student Mental Health at the Edge	Mental health, higher ed, creativity and well-being
2021 (Fall)	Naomi André, RC faculty	Writing Opera, Singing Blackness	Race and representation in opera, musical history, Black narratives
2021 (Winter)	Laura Kasischke, RC alumna and professor	The News from Poetry: In an Era of False Facts and True Fallacies, What’s to be Found in Art?	Art and truth, poetry, resilience through creativity
2019-2020	Anne Curzan, Dean of LSA	Life, Love, and the Liberal Arts: Pursuing an Education That Matters	Purpose of education, curiosity, liberal arts value
2018	Nancy Blum, Artist	Not Separate from the World: Nancy Blum and Public Art Installation	Public art, community impact, creative process
2017	Alisa Solomon, RC alumna, Columbia Journalism	Press, Politics, Performance	Journalism, performance studies, storytelling in public life
2016	Anna Clark, RC alumna, Author	Water’s Perfect Memory: Flint and the Poisoning of an American City	Activism, environmental protections, resilience
2015	Angela D. Dillard, Associate Dean LSA Undergraduate Education	The Liberal Arts in the 21st Century: The Next Wave #SocialInnovation #HigherEd @umichLSA	Liberal arts, higher education, innovation
2014 (Fall)	Andrew Boyd, RC alum, Author and Activist	Beautiful Trouble from the Classroom to the Streets (and back)	Activism, imagination, performance as intervention
2014 (Winter)	David M. Scobey, Executive Dean at the New School for Public Engagement and Founder of the U-M Arts of Citizenship Prog.	The Gifts of Liberal Education	Liberal arts, civil engagement
2012	Dean Terrence J. McDonald, Professor of History	The Liberal Arts in the Research University Today: Histories, Challenges, Futures	Liberal arts, research

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Annual Robertson Memorial Lecture Series

Overview and Purpose

Lectures 2012-present