English Professor Dave Mason gives a hypothetical “last lecture.”

After reflecting on what matters to them, speakers give a hypothetical “last lecture,” conveying whatever insights they want to impart to the world as a culmination of their thinking on the topic of their choosing.

Although a history major when he attended CC, he took many courses in the Political Science department, to which he returned as a teacher in 1983. He received tenure some years later in 1989 and became a full professor in 1996. During his tenure, Professor Hendrickson along with teaching courses in American foreign policy and international relations also directs the journalism minor at Colorado College. He has authored seven books. His website, www.davidhendrickson.org, provides a lot more information including full text links to his essays and various instructional materials.

On February 20th, 2020, New Mexico Senator Tom Udall delivers the keynote speech "A 'Quiet Crisis' No More: Conservation and Climate Change in the West" at the Celeste Theatre in Cornerstone Arts Center for a symposium celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Conservation in the West poll by the State of the Rockies Project.

“All People’s Breakfast,” featuring keynote speaker Ryan P. Haygood ’97, Esq. presenting “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?”

One of the nation’s leading civil rights lawyers, Haygood is the executive director and chief executive officer of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice. An advocate for equity, he works to empower urban communities; Haygood also speaks and writes regularly on issues concerning race, law, civil rights, and democracy.

Recorded January, 20, 2020.

Are we talking about Indians, American Indians, Natives, Native Americans, Indigenous Peoples, First Peoples, or Original Peoples? Are we talking about “tribes” or sovereign nations? Are we talking about what we call ourselves or what the colonial powers named us? Furthermore, are we talking about race, ethnicity, cultural identity, tribal identity, national identity, or some other form of identity? Indigenous folk in the United States navigate and negotiate complex amounts of social identity. Why is this important? Because for Native and Indigenous persons in the US, the consequences and lived experiences associated with these different forms of identity representation are at best, complex, and at worst, alienating and discriminatory. Indigeneity involves racial, cultural, and political identity criteria, which serve to construct boundaries–boundaries that serve to confuse our ability to define and identify Indigeneity. Indeed, very little consensus exists about Indigenous identity among or between individuals, communities, or academia. We continue to struggle with questions like: What constitutes Indigeneity? How do we measure Indianness? How do we account for identity variations between reservation, non-reservation, urban, and rural living? Who truly possesses, performs, or holds American Indian identity? In other words, who is a “real Indian” today? This talk will explore my findings through conversations with 698 people who represent 322 federally recognized tribes.

Dr. Dwanna L. McKay, Assistant Professor of Indigenous Studies in the Race, Ethnicity, and Migration Studies Program at Colorado College

Citizens of today and tomorrow need to be able to solve the challenges of the world, including the existential threats of a changing climate, depleted biodiversity, and disrupted communities with the vision of a scientist, the discipline of an engineer, the heart of a humanist, and the creativity of an artist. This is the goal of a liberal arts education. In this session, Provost Alan Townsend will moderate a discussion with Drs. Marcia McNutt and Jane Lubchenco, two distinguished scientists and CC alumnae who have exemplified a cross-disciplinary and leading approach to science and its relevance to our lives. Drs. Lubchenco and McNutt will talk about the advantages of the liberal arts backgrounds in their own careers, how that approach to education is more important than ever, and how it can help society move forward at a critical time.

The campaign and presidency of Donald Trump has ushered in a new white supremacist era, manifesting white supremacist rhetoric, policies, and violence. What lessons from the past can we employ? What does resistance look like? How can we envision and create a political, economic, and social justice movement rooted in resistance?

Rosa Alicia Clemente is an organizer, political commentator, and independent journalist. An Afro-Puerto Rican born and raised in the Bronx, N.Y., she has dedicated her life to organizing, scholarship, and activism. Clemente is one of her generation’s leading scholars on the issues of Afro-Latinx identity. She is the president and founder of Know Thy Self Productions, which has produced seven major community activism tours and consults on issues such as hip-hop feminism, media justice, voter engagement among youth of color, third-party politics, United States political prisoners, and the right of Puerto Rico to become an independent nation free of United States colonial domination. She is a frequent guest on television, radio, and online media, as her opinions on critical current events are widely sought after. Her groundbreaking article, “Who is Black?” published in 2001, was the catalyst for many discussions regarding Black political and cultural identity in the Latinx community. She is creator of PR (Puerto Rico) On The Map, an independent, unapologetic, Afro-Latinx centered media collective founded in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. She is currently completing her Ph.D. at the W.E.B. DuBois Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Clemente was the first-ever Afro-Latina women to run for vice-president of the United States in 2008 on the Green Party ticket. She and her running mate, Cynthia McKinney, were to this date the only women of color ticket in American history.

This year's Sabine Distinguished Lecture in Psychology is "Flow and the Quality of Life" by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Ph.D., one of the world's leading authorities on the psychology of creativity. His life's work has been to study what makes people truly happy. Drawing upon years of systematic research, he developed the concept of "flow" as a metaphorical description of the rare mental state associated with feelings of optimal satisfaction and fulfillment. His analysis of the internal and external conditions giving rise to "flow" show that it is almost always linked to circumstances of high challenge when personal skills are used to the utmost. Csikszentmihalyi is a Fellow of several scientific societies, the National Academy of Education, and a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Serving on the editorial boards of numerous professional journals, he has been a consultant to business, government organizations, educational associations, and cultural institutions and has given invited lectures throughout the world. In addition to the hugely influential "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience," he is the author of 13 other books translated into 23 different languages, and some 245 research articles on optimal development, creativity, and well-being. He is considered the co-founder of positive psychology.

David Axelrod gives the Abbott Memorial Lecture, speaking on the 2016 election, and what the results will mean. David Axelrod is a veteran of American politics and journalism and the former chief strategist and senior advisor to President Barack Obama. He currently serves as director of the University of Chicago's non-partisan Institute of Politics; senior political commentator for CNN; and host of “The Axe Files,” a top-rated podcast jointly produced by CNN and his institute. Axelrod, a former political writer for the Chicago Tribune and, later, media strategist for 150 state, local, and national political campaigns, is also the author of The New York Times best-selling memoir, “Believer: My Forty Years in Politics.”

Veteran Democratic political strategist Donna Brazile is an adjunct professor, author, syndicated columnist, television political commentator, vice chair for civic engagement and voter participation at the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and former interim national chair of the DNC as well as the former chair of the DNC’s Voting Rights Institute. Aside from working to rebuild her beloved hometown of New Orleans, Brazile’s passion is encouraging young people to vote, to work within the system to strengthen it, and to run for public office. Since 2000, Brazile has lectured at over 185 colleges and universities across the country on such topics as “Inspiring Civility in American Politics,” “Race Relations in the Age of Obama,” “Why Diversity Matters,” and “Women in American Politics.” Brazile is founder and managing director of Brazile & Associates LLC, a general consulting, grassroots advocacy, and training firm based in Washington, D.C.