Political Theory Project

Odyssey Lecture Series

Breadcrumb

Odyssey Lecture Series

Each semester, Odyssey Lectures feature a single speaker who will take students on an extended adventure over some new and unexpected intellectual terrain.

The Lecture Series

The Odyssey Lecture Series launched in 2009 as a way to bring speakers with unique political perspectives to campus. The inaugural lecture featured Amity Shlaes, whose book The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression offered an alternative view to the costs and consequences of the Great Depression and the New Deal. 

Past Odyssey lecturers include:

  • Heather Ann Thompson
  • Bill Krystol
  • Dambisa Moyo
  • Deirdre McCloskey
  • Charles Murray
  • Michael Sandel
  • Randy Barnett
  • Stephen Moore
  • Rick Ross 

Dr. Heather Ann Thompson lecture on the Attica uprising of 1971

The Political Theory Project at Brown University hosted author and historian, Dr. Heather Ann Thompson who has written extensively on policing, mass incarceration and the current criminal justice system. Watch from our video archive as she discusses her Pulitzer Prize-winning and Bancroft Prize-winning book, Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy (Pantheon Books, 2016).

Dr. Heather Ann Thompson lecture on Blood in the Water

Recent Odyssey Lectures

Video Archive

Videos from past lectures are available on our Youtube playlist.