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Rhode Island School of Design Presents Shared Voices: The RISD Presidential Speaker Series

12/08/2011

PROVIDENCE, RI - Rhode Island School of Design presents the inaugural Shared Voices: The RISD Presidential Speaker Series, kicking off with special guest Juan Enriquez on Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 7:30PM in the RISD Auditorium [Canal Walkway at Market Square, Providence]. This event will be free of charge and open to the public, but advance registration is necessary and offered on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Shared Voices: The RISD Presidential Speaker Series offers a forum for welcoming some of the most expansive thinkers of our time to the RISD campus. Each is a master of his or her domain but is also ready to transcend it, sharing our community’s belief in the fruitful exchange of ideas that happens when artists, designers, activists, scientists and other scholars really talk and listen to each other. Faculty co-hosts will engage the speakers with the campus and students during their visits. Public conversations, the centerpieces of each speaker’s visit, will take place in the evenings, open to the RISD and local communities.

President Maeda worked with the RISD faculty to invite three special guest speakers to campus to launch the series in early 2012. The line-up is:

• January 5: Juan Enriquez, who studies the impact of genomics and life sciences on society, co-hosted by Profs. John Dunnigan and Shawn Greenlee.
• February 2: Lisa Randall, a theoretical physicist focused on string theory, co-hosted by Profs. Peter Yeadon and Dan Cavicchi.
• March 14: Kevin Kelly, former executive editor of WIRED and publisher of the Whole Earth Review, co-hosted by Profs. Eva Sutton and Brian Goldberg.

“Part of what inspires me about working at a world-class academic institution is being around others who are similarly energized by new ideas and expansive thinking,” said RISD President John Maeda. “In discussions with our academic leadership, I found that there was an interest in expansive thinkers to RISD to spark new conversations. With their help, we were able to select people who will not only bring fresh perspectives, but whose own work would benefit from an immersive campus experience and exposure to a RISD point of view.”