Barry McNamara  |   Published September 04, 2018

A Different Kind of Pre-Game Talk

Great Lectures Series will ‘kick off’ prior to home opener of Fighting Scots football.

MONMOUTH, Ill. – Fighting Scots football coach Chad Braun won’t be the only Monmouth College faculty member delivering an important pre-game speech this fall.

FIRST GREAT LECTURE: Classics professor Bob Simmons will talk about ?Finding Reality in Fake News... FIRST GREAT LECTURE: Classics professor Bob Simmons will talk about “Finding Reality in Fake News: An Ancient Greek Perspective"at 10 a.m. Sept. 8 in Pattee Auditorium.An addition to the College’s pre-game activities is the Great Lectures Series. It will debut Sept. 8 in conjunction with the Fighting Scots’ home opener against Wartburg College.

Held the morning of every home football game from 10 to 11 a.m. in the Pattee Auditorium on the lower level of the Center for Science and Business, the Great Lecture Series will feature Monmouth faculty members teaching classes representative of their disciplines.

“The series is designed to highlight the great teachers at Monmouth and share our love of our disciplines with members of the public,” said Assistant Professor of Political Science Andre Audette, who helped organize the event. “It is basically an hour-long replica of a class and is open to all with no prior background information required. It’s a chance to see what taking a class at Monmouth College is like.”

Leading off the series will be Associate Professor of Classics Bob Simmons, who will deliver a lecture titled “Finding Reality in Fake News: An Ancient Greek Perspective.”

“The series is designed to highlight the great teachers at Monmouth and share our love of our disciplines with members of the public.”
– Andre Audette, political science professor

Audette said the series was started to appeal to several groups – students interested in taking a class in one of the featured disciplines; prospective students and their families visiting campus; parents of current students; alumni; and the general public.

The Fighting Scots will host five football games this year. The other four lectures will be:

  • Sept. 22: Megan Hinrichsen, anthropology
  • Oct. 6: Farhat Haq, political science
  • Oct. 20: Chris Fasano, physics
  • Oct. 27: Michelle Damian, history

Haq’s lecture, which will coincide with the College’s Homecoming, will be given in honor of her late department colleague, longtime Monmouth professor Ira Smolensky.

“That lecture will commemorate the great teaching that Professor Smolensky did here for over 30 years,” said Audette. “You can get a real liberal arts experience if you come to all five lectures.”

The lecture series is free and open to the public, and light refreshments will be provided.

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