The January Series will be simulcast to some 44 locations worldwide during the 15 day series opening Jan. 8 and ending Jan. 28, 2014.
January Series of Calvin College
When: Jan. 8 to Jan. 28, 2014
Where: Covenant Fine Arts Center at Calvin College, 3201 Burton Ave. SE
Free Admission
More info: Call 616-526-7018
GRAND RAPIDS, MI – ESPN founder Bill Rasmussen, physician and author Victoria Sweet and former U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe are on their way to Grand Rapids.
Not for the chilly winds and gray skies in January in Michigan that left locals who traveled to the Rose Bowl wishing they could linger a few weeks longer in Pasadena.
Bob Goff, a New York Times Best-Selling author and human rights activist; and Jennifer Wiseman, astronomer and senior project scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope, will be at Calvin College this month for the January Series of Calvin College.
2014 January Series lineup
• Jan. 8 – Isabel Wilkerson
"The Epic Story of America's Great Migration"
• Jan. 9 – Olympia Snowe
"Fighting for Common Ground"
• Jan. 10 – Bob Goff
"Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World"
• Jan. 13 – Kevin Schut
"Of Games & God: A Christian Exploration of Video Games"
• Jan. 14 – Nicole Baker Fulgham
"Educating All God's Children"
• Jan. 15 – Zachary Karabell
"Trend and Repeat: What History and Economics can Teach us about the Future"
• Jan. 16 – Michael K. Le Roy
"The Sustainability of Higher Education and the Future of Calvin College"
• Jan. 17 – Linda Smith
"Renting Lacy: A Story of America's Prostituted Children"
• Jan. 20 – John M. Perkins
"Love is the Final Fight: The Life and Legacy of John M. Perkins"
• Jan. 21 – Paul Douglas
"Climate Change: Natural Cycle or Troubling Trend"
• Jan. 22 – Dr. Victoria Sweet
"God's Hotel: A Doctor, A Hospital, and A Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine"
• Jan. 23 – Bill Rasmussen
"Channeling Sports: A Conversation with ESPN Founder Bill Rasmussen"
• Jan. 24 – Jennifer Wiseman
"Our Place in An Amazing Universe"
• Jan. 27 – Anne Zaki
"Is the Arab Spring the Arab Christian's Fall?"
• Jan. 28 – Jeremy Begbie
"Reshaping Lament: Music and the Way to Joy"
The 27th annual January Series features Calvin College president Michael Le Roy and historian and commentator Zachary Karabell in a free, three-week long, liberal arts education opening Jan. 8, 2014.
The weekday, lunchtime speaker series welcomes Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson; former U.S. Senator Linda Smith, who also represented the state of Washington in the U.S. House of Representatives; and John M. Perkins, one of the leading evangelical voices to come out of the American civil rights movement.
“Don’t miss the first three days. I think the first three days are going to be powerful," said Kristi Potter, director of the January Series of Calvin College.
A three-time winner of the International Platform Association's, Silver Bowl Award for Best Campus Lecture Series in the U.S.A., opens Wednesday Jan. 8 with Wilkerson followed by Olympia Snowe on Thursday and Bob Goff on Friday.
Hot topics that experts will discuss include public education reform, healthcare, climate change, the crisis in Egypt and the viability of higher education.
“The thing I love about the January Series is it’s an opportunity to continue to learn at all different ages,” said Potter when the 2014 series was announced in October.
“We value questioning and learning, and we want to learn from the best," she said.
Last year, the January Series welcomed W. Dwight Armstrong, CEO of the national Future Farmers of America; and Jenny Yang, director of advocacy and policy for the refugee and immigration program at World Relief; as well as Captain Scotty Smiley, the U.S. Army’s only active-duty blind officer; and Jeremy Courtney, founder of the Preemptive Love Coalition, a nonprofit that provides medical training for Iraqi physicians, among other speakers.
Related: Calvin College's 2013 January Series looks at Washington, examines Mormonism, tackles immigration, bioethics
During the 2014 January Series, Smith, founder of Shared Hope International, will talk about the realities of human trafficking in the United States during the month of January, which the National Association of Attorneys General have declared "National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month."
"We're pleased that former Washington State Congresswoman Linda Smith will be speaking on the January Series," Potter said. "Her organization is dedicated to bringing an end to sex trafficking, the fastest growing and second largest criminal activity in the world.
Snowe, a former senator from the state of Maine for 18 years and the only woman to serve in both houses at both state and federal level in a 40-year career in politics, will discuss her ideas on how to fix the stalemate in Congress.
Karabell, a global economist and historian, will provide a profound and refreshingly optimistic outlook for the world economy, which is in crisis.
Two Calvin College alumni are part of the 2014 series. Kevin Schut, an associate professor of media and communication at Trinity Western University in British Columbia, will discuss the compatibility of the Christian faith with video games and other interactive media; and Anne Zaki, a native of Egypt who teaches at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo, will discuss life in Egypt for Middle Eastern Christians in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.
Each one-hour presentation is open free to the public. Free parking is available.
Doors open at 11:30 a.m. with programs beginning at 12:30 p.m. at the Covenant Fine Arts Center Auditorium at Calvin College.
Seating is limited, but presentations are to be webcast live at more than 44 locations spanning 17 states.
Three Canadian provinces and one site in Europe also will broadcast the lectures.
Taken together, nearly 40,000 people last year attended each lecture, whether on-campus at Calvin College or at one of the remote sites.
Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk covers arts and entertainment for MLive/Grand Rapids Press. Email him at jkaczmarczyk@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.