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Black culture expert, acclaimed architects, anthropologist to present 2019-20 Patten Lectures

May 10, 2019

An expert in the intersection of race and politics, partners of an internationally acclaimed architecture firm and a renowned anthropologist who studies lemurs in the forests of Madagascar will present Patten Lectures at Indiana University Bloomington during the 2019-20 academic year.

Imani Perry, the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, will lecture during the week of Nov. 4, 2019.

Perry’s research is interdisciplinary, with roots in African American and American studies, legal history, cultural studies, history, musicology, women’s and gender studies, and critical race studies. She is the author of five books and numerous other scholarly publications on topics such as hip-hop, the intersection of race and politics in the U.S., the influence of race on law, and literature and music.

Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake, partners of KieranTimberlake architecture firm, will lecture during the week of Feb. 24, 2020.

KieranTimberlake is an internationally acclaimed architecture firm noted for exemplary design focused on sustainability and primary research to develop new materials, prefabrication processes, interactive computer modeling, and adaptable reuse and passive systems. Recently completed projects include the U.S. Embassy in London, the Engineering Research Center at Brown University and High Horse Ranch, an off-site fabricated home in northern California.

Dame Alison Richard, senior research scientist in the Department of Anthropology and the Franklin Muzzy Crosby Professor Emerita of the Human Environment at Yale University, will lecture during the week of March 30, 2020.

Richard is a renowned anthropologist, evolutionary ecologist and conservationist. Her research has focused on the demography, ecology and behavior of the sifaka lemur, a primate that lives in the forests of southern Madagascar. With colleagues, she founded the Bezà Mahafaly partnership in Madagascar for conservation, research and training. Richard also served as the provost of Yale University and as vice chancellor of the University of Cambridge.

Each presenter’s public lectures will take place from 7:30 to 9 p.m. on the Tuesday and Thursday of the week of their visit.

The William T. Patten Foundation

The William T. Patten Foundation, endowed by a student of the Indiana University class of 1893, brings to the Bloomington campus people of extraordinary national and international distinction in the sciences, humanities and arts. Past lecturers have included Oscar Arias, Jorge Luis Borges, Noam Chomsky, Natalie Zemon Davis, Umberto Eco, Julian S. Huxley, Evelyn Fox Keller, Toni Morrison, Martha Nussbaum, Amos Oz, Helmuth Rilling, Edward Said, Amartya Sen, Wole Soyinka, Rene Thom, Thomas Schelling, Strobe Talbott and Lester Thurow.

For more information about the Patten Foundation, the Patten Lecture Series and future nominations, contact vpfaa@indiana.edu.

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