On Tuesday January 21st, 2025, the University of Mary Washington will begin the 22nd season of its lecture series, Great Lives: Biographical Approaches to History and Culture. This year’s program schedule will consist of 15 lectures running from January 21st though March 20th. These lectures are free and open to the public.
This year’s schedule starts off strong with Women of the CIA on January 15th, hosted by Liza Mundy, author of The Sisterhood: The Secret Story of Women at the CIA. Some other highlights of the 2025 season include lectures on Rod Serling, Barbara Walters, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, Phillis Wheatley, and Jay Gatsby.
Each lecture will begin at 7:30pm in the Dodd Auditorium of Washington Hall on the UMW Campus, with doors opening at 6:30pm. They will end with an audience Q&A, and will be recorded and uploaded to the Great Lives webpage. The University Bookstore will also sell selected titles based on the topic at each lecture. On certain nights, authors will be available to sign their books following the lectures.
Great Lives at the University of Mary Washington is a wonderfully insightful way to expand your education of history, and a fascinating journey into the stories of these revered individuals.
| Date | Lecture | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| Jan. 21 | Women of the CIA | Liza Mundy |
| Jan. 23 | Pete Rose | Keith O’Brien |
| Jan. 28 | Rod Serling | Anne Serling |
| Jan. 30 | Barbara Walters | Susan Page |
| Feb. 4 | John Glenn and Ted Williams | Adam Lazarus |
| Feb. 6 | Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull | Mark Lee Gardner |
| Feb. 13 | John Lewis | Raymond Arsenault |
| Feb. 18 | Captain James Cook | Hampton Sides |
| Feb. 20 | James A. Garfield | C.W. Goodyear |
| Feb. 25 | Da Vinci, Shakespeare, Newton, Beethoven, and Einstein | Bulent Atalay |
| Feb. 27 | Phillis Wheatley: America’s First Black Poet | David Waldstreicher |
| Mar. 11 | James Longstreet | Elizabeth Varon |
| Mar. 13 | Pat Nixon | Health Hardage Lee |
| Mar. 18 | Hedy Lamarr | Stephen Michael Shearer |
| Mar. 20 | Jay Gatsby | Bob Batchelor |
Follow Great Lives on Facebook.