St. Mary's College Announces January 'Speaker Series'

Saint Mary’s College of California announces the 2015 January Term Speaker Series, including featured guest lecturer Ruth Ozeki.

With the theme of “Lives Lived Well,” the upcoming “Jan Term” Speaker Series—which is free and open to the public—invites reflection on Ms. Ozeki’s award-winning literary work, Appalachian culture, society’s mental health challenges and gender boundaries, the future of our nation, and the impact of Pope Francis across the globe.

Novelist Ruth Ozeki’s latest work is the critically acclaimed A Tale for the Time Being, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and won the LA Times Book Prize and the Medici Book Club Prize.

The book was also the assigned fall reading for more than 600 first-year students at Saint Mary’s. An accomplished filmmaker, Ozeki’s documentary and dramatic independent films, including Halving the Bones, have been shown on PBS, at the Sundance Film Festival and at colleges and universities across the country.

Ozeki, will discuss her novel A Tale for the Time Being with Saint Mary’s students and community members, and offer some timely tips for the audience on how to cultivate your superpower.

The series also features distinguished speakers, such as Harvard Religion Professor Reverend J. Bryan Hehir, who will discuss the impact of Pope Francis on the Catholic Church and the world, and Jesse Saperstein, who while diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, has become a leader in the anti-bullying movement and advocate for individuals with autism.

The 2015 series includes a compelling conversation with Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Jason Cohen, whose Oscar-nominated short film Facing Fear: A Path to Forgiveness tells the true story of Matthew Boger and Tim Zaal.

In 1980 Boger was a teen living on LA’s streets after being thrown out of his house for being gay. One night he was savagely beaten and left for dead by a group of neo-Nazi skinheads that included Zaal. 25 years later, their paths crossed at a event where Zaal talked about leaving the skinhead movement. The two men soon realized that they had met before. Both Zaal and Boger join Cohen in a discussion of the film and their challenging journey toward forgiveness and reconciliation.

The series features folklorists and photographers Alan Jabbour and Karen Singer Jabbour, who have extensively documented Appalachian traditions in American roots music and folk art. Also presenting will be bestselling science fiction writer Tobias Buckell, whose award-winning work has garnered international acclaim and has been translated into 17 languages.

Additionally, Theresa Sparks, transgender activist, former family man and executive director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission will offer insight into the ongoing effort to foster greater acceptance for members of the LGBTQIA (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex and Asexual) community.

The Speaker Series is an annual staple of the College’s intense month-long “Jan Term,” when students are encouraged to step out of their comfort zones, explore new intellectual territory and take classes that often embody the Lasallian tradition of social action.

Cost: Free and open to the public.

Where: Soda Center, Saint Mary’s College of California, 1928 St. Mary’s Road, Moraga, Calif. 94575
(All events, unless otherwise noted, will be held in the Soda Center)

Speaker Series Schedule:
Ruth Ozeki: “ Writing A Tale for the Time Being and cultivating your superpower”
7:30 p.m. Monday, January 12, 2015 — Soda Center

Reverend Bryan Hehir “Pope Francis, the Church and the World”
7 p.m. Tuesday, January 13, 2015 — Soda Center

Jesse Saperstein “Getting a Life With Asperger’s”
1 p.m. Wednesday, January 14, 2015 — Hagerty Lounge

Alan and Karen Jabbour “Life-Changing Encounters with Appalachian Culture”
7 p.m. Tuesday, January 20, 2015 — Soda Center

Matthew Boger, Tim Zaal, and Jason Cohen “Facing Fear: A Path to Forgiveness”
1 p.m. Wednesday, January 21, 2015 — Hagerty Lounge

Tobias Buckell “The Future You Don’t See”
7 p.m. Monday, January 26, 2015 — Soda Center

Theresa Sparks “The Emerging TGNC (Trans-Gender-Non-Conforming) Community: Challenges and Opportunities”
1 p.m. Wednesday, January 28, 2015 — Soda Center

Background:

Each year, the “Jan Term” Speaker Series brings provocative speakers from the worlds of art, politics, science and technology to the Saint Mary’s campus. During the day, visiting speakers meet with several classes, engage in lively roundtable discussions with students and present their ideas to the entire community at a free public lecture in the evening.

The College’s innovative Jan Term session is one of the reasons Saint Mary’s was recognized in the prestigious higher-ed guidebookColleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges. The publication is widely recognized as essential reading for college-bound students, and by discerning parents, to identify colleges that offer life-transforming educational experiences. Saint Mary’s is the only Catholic college, the only California college and the only Division I institution of higher education in the history of the 40-school list.

For more information, contact the Jan Term office by phone at (925) 631-4771 or by email at janterm@stmarys-ca.edu. Visit the Speaker Series online at stmarys-ca.edu/january-term.