30th Anniversary of the Rhetoric Program

Rhetoric 30th Anniversary Lecture with Scott Sanders: WRITING FROM THE CENTER
January 26, 2009 4:15 PM, Library 4th Fl Conference Room

A celebration of Hampden-Sydney College’s nationally recognized Rhetoric Program will take place on Monday and Tuesday, January 26 and 27.  Entitled A More Particular Attention to the English Language, the tribute to the 30th anniversary of the program will include the following events. 

Monday, January 26 

4 PM, H-SC Library, 4th FloorWriting from the Center by author Scott Russell Sanders 

7:30 PM, Crawley ForumA Private History of Awe: An Evening with Scott Russell Sanders   

Tuesday, January 27

4 PM, H-SC Library, 4th FloorRhetoric at Work: Hampden-Sydney Alumni Address Writing and Speaking on the Job  

7:30 PM, Crawley ForumThe Language of Leadership: The Sir Winston Method by James C. Humes, diplomat, actor, and author 

There are two opportunities to hear author Scott Russell Sanders, Monday, January 26, at 4 PM and again at 7:30 PM.  Among Sanders more than twenty books are novels, collections of stories, and works of personal nonfiction, including Staying Put, Writing from the Center, and Hunting for Hope. His latest book is A Private History of Awe, a coming-of-age memoir, love story, and spiritual testament, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. A Conservationist Manifesto, his vision of a shift to a sustainable society, will be published in 2009.  His writing examines the human place in nature, the pursuit of social justice, the relation between culture and geography, and the search for a spiritual path.

He has received the Lannan Literary Award, the Associated Writing Programs Award in Creative Nonfiction, the Great Lakes Book Award, the Kenyon Review Literary Award, and the John Burroughs Essay Award, among other honors, and has received support for his writing from the Lilly Endowment, the Indiana Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation.  The Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature recently named him the 2009 winner of the Mark Twain Award.  

James C. Humes, who will speak on Tuesday, January 27, at 7:30 PM, has enjoyed a professional life as a lawyer, legislator, diplomat, actor, author, scholar and White House speechwriter. He once headed the Philadelphia Bar Association and, in the 1960’s, he was Pennsylvania’s youngest State Representative. He served as Director of Policy and Plans in the U.S. Department of State, and on behalf of the State Department, has lectured on American history and government to universities and other groups in Asia, Latin America and Europe.  

In 1986, Humes performed a one-man show about Churchill, Blood, Sweat and Tears; the show aired on PBS.  He has written 30 books, including a humorous best seller, How to Get Invited to the White House.  Another, Churchill:  Speaker of the Century, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and won the Athenaeum award for “Best Biography.”  His biography of Shakespeare won the Avon Award.  He has also written books on Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin.  His autobiography, Confessions of a White House Ghost Writer:  Five Presidents and Other Political Adventures, was published in 1997.  His latest book is Churchill and Eisenhower:  The Partnership That Saved the World.  A respected scholar, Humes was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at the International Center for Scholars at the Smithsonian in 1982 and his book, My Fellow Americans: Presidential Addresses That Shaped History, stemmed from that year.   

Free and open to the community, these programs are sponsored by the Rhetoric Program and the Lectures & Programs Committee at Hampden-Sydney College.  

Rhetoric 30th Anniversary Lecture: A PRIVATE HISTORY OF AWE: AN EVENING WITH SCOTT RUSSELL SANDERS
January 26, 2009 7:30 PM, Crawley Forum

Rhetoric 30th Anniversary Lecture with an Alumni Panel: RHETORIC AT WORK: H-SC ALUMNI DISCUSS WRITING & SPEAKING ON THE JOB
January 27, 2009 4:15 PM, Library 4th Fl Conference Room

Rhetoric 30th Anniversary Lecture with Prof. James Humes: THE LANGUAGE OF LEADERSHIP: THE SIR WINSTON METHOD
January 27, 2009 7:30 PM, Crawley Forum