Enjoy lectures almost every week, year-round, from the comfort and safety of your home or in-person at the Washtenaw Community College, Morris Lawrence Building Auditorium. Academic and professional experts speak on a wide range of cutting-edge social and political issues, science and technology, music, and the arts. Our teleconference lectures include the weekly lectures of the Thursday Lecture Series (four series on different themes throughout the year with four or five individual lectures per series), and the monthly Alfred Gourdji Distinguished Lecture Series.
Upcoming Winter 2025 Lectures Series
Registration Opens on December 19th
Thursday Lecture Series: Innovative Research and Treatments Impacting Mental Health in the U.S.
January 30 – February 27
Recent years have seen a significant increase in mental health issues. Over 50 million people currently experience some form of mental illness. This decline is particularly acute in youth and in rural, low-income, and minority populations. Addressing this challenge will demand scientific advances and innovative treatments. This lecture series will look at some of these including brain scanning diagnostics and treatment, research on social media impacts on adolescent mental health, treatments using Ketamine or psychedelics, alternative treatment modalities such as mindfulness and meditation, and enhancing services to underserved populations.
Committee Members: Bruce Friedman, Teresa Schneider, Mike Wixom and co-chairs, Jim MacBain and Leo Shedden
Thursday Lecture Series: Celebrating the Beauty and Power of the Arts
March 13 -April 3
The final lecture series of the 2024-25 season will be a journey into artistic expression in the form of music, theater, poetry and the visual arts. It will deepen your appreciation and understanding of the transformative power of the arts. Experts will give us the tools necessary to make each encounter with the arts a personal experience. By the end of the series, we will have learned how the arts stimulate our thoughts, emotions, ideas and culminate in actions that change the world around us. The "Arts” committee invites you to join us as we explore the beauty and power of the arts.
More details to come regarding the speakers and lectures in this series.
Committee members: Beverly Geltner, Avi Eisbruch, Donna Schultz, Jan Sockness, Mary Vardigan, and chair Frances Schultz.
