Since its inception in 1964, this public forum series has been planned and organized by students. It has attracted some of the nation's most able speakers including U.S. Presidents Jimmy Carter, George Bush, and Gerald Ford, Martin Luther King, Jr., Margaret Thatcher, and Jack Kemp. The Nashville community, Vanderbilt alumni, and students from high schools and other universities are invited to join in this two-day event. Speakers have included such nationally recognized individuals as former Mayor Andrew Young of Atlanta, Dr. Julius Lester, and the Reverend James Lawson. The lectures are free and open to the public.
All events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.
The Antoinette Brown Lecture, named for Antoinette Brown Blackwell, who, in 1853, became the first ordained woman in America, features distinguished woman theologians and church leaders speaking on a variety of concerns for women in ministry. The Cole Lectures were established in 1893 by Colonel Edmund W. Cole for the advocacy of the Christian religion, and the lectures have been delivered annually for more than a hundred years. The Herman Norton Lecture in Preaching and Pastoral Care was established in order to bring to Vanderbilt Divinity School and the religious community of Nashville renowned leaders in this area. All lectures are open to the public without charge. The purpose of the seminar series is to promote informed discussion of critical policy-based education issues among scholars, policy makers, practitioners, and researchers.