Princeton University Podcasts

The President’s Lecture Series was established by President Shirley M. Tilghman in the fall of 2001 to give Princeton’s faculty an opportunity to learn about the work of their colleagues in other disciplines and to share their research with the University community. First proposed by Alan B. Krueger, the Lynn Bendheim Thoman, Class of 1976, and Robert Bendheim, Class of 1937, Professor in Economics and Public Policy, the lectures are presented three times a year and are open to the public.

Plutarch and Heraclitus believed that a certain passage in the 20th book of The Odyssey (“Theoclymenus’s prophecy”) was a poetic description of a total solar eclipse. In the late 1920s Schoch and Neugebauer computed that the solar eclipse of 16 April 1178 B.C.E. was total over the Ionian Islands and was the only suitable eclipse in more than a century to agree with classical estimates of the decade-earlier sack of Troy around 1192–1184 B.C.E. However, much skepticism remains about whether the verses refer to this, or any, eclipse. Marcelo Magnasco and his colleague Constantino Baikouzis of the Observatorio Astronomico in La Plata, Argentina analyzed other astronomical references in the epic, without assuming the existence of an eclipse, and searched for dates matching the astronomical phenomena they probably describe. Using three astronomical references in the epic—Boötes and the Pleiades, Venus, and the New Moon—and supplementing them with a conjectural identification of Hermes’s trip to Ogygia with the motion of planet Mercury, they searched all possible dates in the span 1250–1115 B.C., trying to match these phenomena in the order and manner that the text describes. In that period, a single date closely matches the phenomena: 16 April 1178 B.C.E. They speculate that the astronomical references in the epic, plus the disputed eclipse reference, may refer to that specific eclipse.

In his lecture, “The Role of Europe in a Multilateral World,” Romano Prodi will examine the benefits and challenges presented by the European Union’s expansion. Although the enlargement of the union has had significant impact on the democratic transition in eastern Europe and has extended European markets, there is no unanimity on issues of security, energy, and foreign affairs. Prodi maintains that if the EU aims to play a key role on the world’s political stage, it will need to develop an integrated European foreign policy. Trained in law and economics, Dr. Prodi graduated from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart (Milan) and the London School of Economics. He taught at the University of Bologna before entering politics. A founder of the center-left coalition, the Olive Tree, he served as prime minister of Italy from 1996 to 1998. He then served as president of the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, from 1999 to 2004. During that period he presided over the eastward expansion of the European Union and the adoption of the euro as a common currency. He returned to Italian politics, once more serving as prime minister, from 2006 to 2008. Prodi is currently professor-at-large at the Watson Institute for international studies at Brown University.

This panel discussion among four conservative thinkers will address the role of conservatism in the current political arena—where it fits in the major parties, what role it may play in the next election, and what will happen to the right and far right. Ross Douthat is an author and blogger. Formerly a senior editor at The Atlantic, he is the author of Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class (Hyperion, 2005) and, with Reihan Salam, Grand New Party (Doubleday, 2008). In 2009 he replaced William Kristol as the conservative columnist at the New York Times. David Frum was an economic speechwriter for former President George W. Bush. A resident fellow of the American Enterprise Institute and a former contributing editor of National Review, he is the founder of NewMajority.com, a site “dedicated to the modernization and renewal of the Republican party and the conservative movement.” He is the author of several books, most recently, Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again (2008). Daniel Larison is a contributing editor at The American Conservative, which publishes his blog Eunomia. A scholar of Byzantine history, Larison recently completed a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. Virginia Postrel ‘82 is the author of The Future and Its Enemies (1998) and The Substance of Style (2003). From 1989 to 2000, she was the editor-in-chief of Reason. She has been an economics columnist for The New York Times, “Commerce and Culture” columnist for The Atlantic, and a columnist for Forbes and Forbes ASAP. A pioneering blogger, she currently edits a group blog at DeepGlamour.net and continues to blog sporadically at Dynamist.com, the website she founded in 1998. She is writing a book on glamour for The Free Press.

The search for the origins of species has entailed a series of great adventures over the past 200 years. Biologist and author Sean B. Carroll will chronicle the exploits of a group of explorers who walked where no one had walked, saw what no one had seen, and thought what no one else had thought. Their achievements sparked a revolution that changed, profoundly and forever, our perception of the living world and our place within it.

Women artists continue to be excluded from positions of power and visibility in the American theatre industry. Recent research, including a provocative study by Princeton alumni Emily Sands, indicates that plays by women are less frequently produced now than they were at the turn of the 20th century. More women have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in recent years, including Suzan-Lori Parks (Top Dog/Underdog) Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive) and this year, Lynn Nottage (Ruined), but very few women ever win the Tony Award for playwrighting or directing. What does this imply? Why and how does gender disparity persist in theatre? Leading women involved with theatre will discuss these issues, their experiences and their vision in a day-long conference at Princeton University on Saturday, September 26th.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pushed his counterparts around the world to pursue a "new global order" based on peace and trust rather than conflict in an address Wednesday, Sept. 23, at Princeton University.

Steven Berlin Johnson is the author of The Ghost Map (2006), a chronicle of the 1854 cholera epidemic in London, and The Invention of Air (2008), the story of British scientist Joseph Priestly and his influence on the America's Founding Fathers. In this lecture Johnson will argue against those who maintain that the internet has fragmented society by enabling us to filter out voices with viewpoints different from our own. On the contrary, he claims that the internet promotes a diversity far more comprehensive than older forms of media.

President Shirley M. Tilghman addressed the class of 2013 at the event "Opening Exercises: A University Convocation," which was held in the University Chapel on September 13, 2009.

The University's 262nd Commencement ceremony was held at 11 a.m. Tuesday, June 2, on the lawn in front of Nassau Hall. Princeton President Shirley M. Tilghman presided and addressed the graduates.