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L.C. Sears Collegiate Seminar Series
The L.C. Sears Collegiate Seminar Series is student-conceived and organized, presenting stimulating public presentations on issues of topical relevance. The students of the Honors College and its officers, the Honors Council, choose topics of interest and invite speakers under the supervision of the Dean. Seminars are open to all students and faculty, and questions are often welcomed at the conclusion of each event. The goal of the series is to stimulate public dialogue on important topics, and to bring together the intellectual community of the Honors College as well as the entire Harding community.
The first L.C. Sears Collegiate Seminar Series event was presented in the Fall 2005 semester. Past seminars have focused on issues as diverse as the response of churches to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the Arab/Israeli conflict in the Middle East. The students of the Honors Council look forward to many more seminars on timely issues featuring speakers from diverse backgrounds.
The series is named for L.C. Sears, the first academic dean for Harding. He was an accomplished professor, author, administrator, and Shakespearian academic scholar, and the series is intended to pay homage to the academic legacy enjoyed by members of the Harding community. |
L.C. Sears
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Upcoming Seminar Subjects
| Fall 2006: Dr. David Rosand, the Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History at Columbia University will present a seminar on the art of Leonardo da Vinci. Professor Rosand is a world-renowned expert on the Renaissance tradition and Venetian art, and is the author of Titian and the Venetian Woodcut (1976), Titian (1978), The Meaning of the Mark: Leonardo and Titian (1988), Painting in Sixteenth-Century Venice: Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto (1982, rev. ed. 1997), Robert Motherwell on Paper (1997), Myths of Venice: The Figuration of a State (2001) and Drawing Acts: Studies in Graphic Expression and Representation (2002). His website is available here. |
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Past Seminars:
| Spring 2006:
Peace in Palestine: The Arab-Israeli Conflict and U.S. Foreign Policy.
On Thursday, March 2nd, 2006, three religious scholars came together to share their views on the continuing conflict in the Middle East. Rabbi Elliot Gertel of Chicago and Dr. Nabil Bayakly of Memphis presented differing views after an introduction Evertt Huffard, Dean of Harding University's Graduate School of Religion. Student questions followed. The event was attended by approximately 300 students, faculty, and members of the community, as well as representatives of local TV, radio, and print media outlets. A DVD of the Peace in Palestine seminar is available for $5 through the Honors College. Interested persons should call (501) 279-4056 or e-mail honors@harding.edu.
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Rabbi Elliot B. Gertel, a native of Springfield, MA, attended the Joint Program at Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary, earning a B.A. in philosophy and a B.H.L. in Bible. He received a M.H.L. from the Seminary, where he was ordained in 1981. Rabbi Gertel has been spiritual leader of Congregation Rodfei Zedek in Chicago since 1988. In Chicago he has been chairman of the Joint Television Commission of the Jewish Federation and the Chicago Board of Rabbis, President of the Hyde Park and Kenwood Interfaith Council, and a board member of the Chicago Jewish Historical Society.
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| On the congregational level, Rabbi Gertel has been an innovator whose programs have won Solomon Schechter awards for music and publications and "unique programming." He has pioneered in outreach to synagogue alumni and in joint ventures with other communal agencies, such as Jewish Family Services.
Rabbi Gertel has been a contributing editor of Conservative Judaism and Jewish Spectator magazines. He has contributed many essays and reviews to popular and scholarly publications in the fields of Jewish thought, Jewish literature and American Jewish history, and, since 1979, has been the media critic for the Jewish Post and Opinion, American Jewry’s longest-running national English-language weekly. His recent books include What Jews Know About Salvation, which prodded the Library of Congress to list "salvation" as a Jewish concept, and Over the Top Judaism, which discusses the depiction of Judaism in film and on television.
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Nabil A. Bayakly was born in Kumasi, Ghana in West Africa to Lebanese parents of Turkish descent. During his youth in Tripoli, Lebanon Bayakly graduated from Tripoli Evangelical School and attended the Tripoli Institute for High Islamic Studies for two years. After arriving in the United States in 1979, he earned a PhD from the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Memphis. Dr. Bayakly is currently Assistant Professor of Biology at LeMoyne- Owen College in Memphis as well as Adjunct Professor for Islamic Studies at Memphis Theological Seminary. Bayakly is a cofounder of the Memphis Multireligious Association, serves as Chairman of Muslims in Memphis, and is a member of the Peace and Justice Center for the Midsouth, Diversity Memphis, and the Mayor’s Committee (of Memphis) for Multireligious and Multicultural Affairs. He also holds a Certificate of Achievement from the FBI for Civil Rights Training.
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Bayakly has published numerous scientific, religious and sociopolitical papers and has been a guest speaker on Islamic and Middle East issues at many prestigious institutions, including Sewanee, Rhodes, and Columbia. Bayakly was the American-Muslim representative for the Second Asia Pacific Business Conference on Cultural Diversity at the Workplace in Putrajaya, Malaysia in 2005. Dr. Bayakly and his Ethiopian wife have four children, all US citizens.
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Evertt W. Huffard is Dean/Executive Director and Professor of Missiology at Harding University Graduate School of Religion, in Memphis, Tennessee. He has been teaching leadership and missiology for 20 years. In 1997 he received the Distinguished Teacher Award from Harding University. His cross-cultural experiences began as a teenager when his parents moved to Jerusalem, Jordan in 1963. He returned to the USA in 1967 and after graduating from Lubbock Christian University (A.A.), Harding University (B.A.), and Harding University Graduate School of Religion (M.A. and M.Th.) he served a church in Nazareth, Israel and taught Bible at the Galilee Christian High School for five years. He completed a Ph.D. in Inter-Cultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary in 1985 with a focus on the Muslim-Christian encounter. In addition to his ten years of urban ministry experience in Los Angeles and Memphis, Dr. Huffard frequently lectures on the Muslim-Christian encounter.
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In June, 2000 he served as a co-leader of a delegation of 12 theologians visiting the Israeli and Palestinian delegates in the peace process in Jerusalem. For the past 20 years he has hosted tours to the Holy Land. Since 9/11 he has spoken to over 120 churches and schools on understanding our Muslim neighbors. His most recent trip to the Middle East was in December, 2004. Evertt and his wife, Ileene, have three children, and five grandchildren.
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Called to Care: AIDS and Christian Compassion
On November 15th, 2005, Dr. Bruce Smith and Dr. Anna Griffith shared their views on the current state of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the approaches churches should be taking in order to combat it. The event was an encouraging success, with over two hundred concerned students and faculty present. After presenting for an hour and a half Dr. Smith and Dr. Griffith answered many more questions from those present. The promotional video for the seminar as well as an audio recording of the event are available below.
Bruce Smith is a Christian HIV physician with training and experience in Family Practice, International Health and Public Health. He is an elder of the Redlands, California, Church of Christ and works for the Public Health Department of San Bernardino County. He is a graduate of Harding and the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio, and spent eight years in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Guatemala as a medical missionary. Most recently he has made two trips to Africa to learn from church leaders what should be done about the HIV crisis there and to lead church leaders in choosing courses of action.
Anna Griffith was born and raised in Levelland, TX. After high school she attended and received a professional certificate from the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Along with numerous other degrees, Dr. Griffith holds the Doctor of Ministry from Abilene Christian University. She is the author of Balance: A Modern Christian Challenge and From Paul to Philippi, With Love, along with numerous articles in "Wineskins," "Christian Chronicle," and other publications. She became involved with AIDS when she learned that a family member was HIV+, who then challenged her by stating (truthfully) that the church at the time was doing nothing about AIDS.
Downloads:
Promotional Video for Called to Care (450 MB)
MP3 Audio file of the Seminar - part 1 (91 MB)
MP3 Audio file of the Seminar - part 2 (82 MB)
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