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The School of Undergraduate Studies presents two large lectures: Dean Thomas Gilligan’s Emerging Global Economic Growth and Dean Paul Woodruff’s How to Spot a Tyrant When You See One. Students are also encouraged to attend linked events: plays and intimate lectures that offer alternative or in-depth perspectives on the same topics as the large events.
How to Spot a Tyrant When You See One:
Models of Tyranny and Leadership from Classical Drama
Dean Paul Woodruff, School of Undergraduate Studies
September 22 at 7 p.m. in Bass Concert Hall
Tyranny is the opposite of freedom. If we care about our freedoms we need to know what tyranny looks like. Tyranny shows up brilliantly in theater. We will see three exciting scenes of tyrants in action, performed by the Department of Theater and Dance, along with a commentary on freedom and tyranny by Paul Woodruff, who has recently published a book on the idea of democracy.
See three loathsome but hardworking tyrants in scenes from Sophocles’ Antigone, Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, and Ibsen’s A Doll’s House.
Download notes on the three scenes and background reading.
Linked Events
Howl, Howl, Howl! Does Father Always Know Best?
Professor Elizabeth Richmond-Garza, Department of English
September 16 at 7 p.m. in ACES 2.302
King Lear is a huge play and a painful one. It asks us to think hard about how we treat our parents and how we wish to be treated in turn as we grow old. In certain periods the world seems especially violently chaotic, and at the same time parents and children feel out of touch. These two fears combined in Shakespeare’s day and perhaps also come together in ours. Whenever King Lear is popular, as it is today, it speaks to us about terror and about whether our families can ease our anxieties. This multimedia presentation will trace through image and film how a play from almost exactly four hundred years ago remains unforgettable and therapeutic for all generations even today.
King Lear (ticketed event)
Actors from the London Stage
September 30, October 1-2 at the B. Iden Payne Theater and on October 3 at Winedale
Measure for Measure (ticketed event)
Austin Shakespeare
September 10-27 at the Long Center for Performing Arts