Hamilton Hall Lecture Series Returns to Promote Lifelong Learning
By Patrick DeVivo
Hamilton Hall in Salem
Once again this year, Melrose residents will have the chance to hear some of the leading experts in global affairs discuss the most important and compelling issues of the day.
The renowned Hamilton Hall Lecture Series on World Affairs will be aired remotely at the Milano Center in Melrose each Saturday morning from February 7th through March 28th. The live lectures take place at the historic Hamilton Hall in Salem, MA.
Each lecture and discussion starts at 11am and is scheduled for one hour. The organizers of the lecture series limit remote presentations of the lectures to specific organizations. The Friends of the Milano Center was pleased to become one of these organizations in 2024.
The lectures are open to all Melrose residents aged 60 and older who are registered Milano Center members. Current non-members are welcome to register as Milano Center members when they sign up and pay for this year’s series.
The Hamilton Hall lectures make the work of some of the leading experts in international affairs accessible to the public. The organizers of the series hope to stimulate intellectual curiosity and lifelong learning. Topics include cyber security, authoritarianism, immigration, climate change, and others – see the schedule below.
“We are grateful to the Friends of the Milano Center for offering the Hamilton Hall Lecture Series for the third straight year,” says Erica Brown, Executive Director of the Melrose Council on Aging. This series is a great opportunity to hear speakers from prestigious universities and organizations across the country talk about some of the most pressing issues facing us today.”
Now in its 80th year, the Hamilton Hall lecture series is a tradition that dates back to 1946 when a group of women from Salem joined together to raise funds for needed renovations to historic Hamilton Hall in downtown Salem. Hamilton Hall was constructed in 1805 by renowned architect and wood carver Samual McIntire and is a designated Registered National Historic Landmark. The group of women became known as the Current Events Committee as they organized this annual set of weekly lectures and discussions on specific topics in world affairs relevant at that time.
In the early years of the lecture series, James Powers, Foreign Editor and Chief Editorial Writer for the Boston Globe, delivered each of the eight lectures. Over time the series diversified and included scholars, journalists, and noted experts in areas of world affairs.
The cost of a package of all 8 remote lectures is $80. Individuals may also attend any 4 lectures for $50. This can be arranged, and any questions can be addressed, by contacting Erica Brown, Executive Director, Melrose Council on Aging, at 781-662-6686 or at ebrown@cityofmelrose.org. Proceeds from the lecture series go to support the Friends of the Milano Center.
- Saturday, February 7th, 11am: “International Cyber Conflict: Past, Present, and Future” (Josephine Wolff, Professor of Cybersecurity Policy, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University)
- Saturday, February 14th, 11am: “Migration and Solidarity: “From ‘Them’ and ‘Us’ to a new ‘We’” (Jacqueline Bhabha, Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights, and Director of Research at the Francos-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health)
- Saturday, February 21st, 11am: “The New World: Order Out of Chaos, or Just Chaos?” (Stephen Kinzer, Senior Fellow at The Watson School for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, author, and world affairs columnist for The Boston Globe)
- Saturday, February 28th, 11am: “Breaking the Polarization Trap: Discussions from History to Solutions in the Present” (Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor; Director, Democratic Knowledge Project, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Director, Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University)
- Saturday, March 7th, 11am: “Strategic Positioning in Global Higher Education: Partnerships, Student Mobility, and Geopolitics” (Kalpen Trivedi, Senior Vice President for Global Affairs, Director, Global Affairs Office, University of Massachusetts, Amherst)
- Saturday, March 14th, 11am: “Why I’m Still Optimistic That We Will Solve Climate Change.” (Susan Solomon, Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of Environmental Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
- Saturday, March 21st, 11am: “Iron Fist, Silk Glove: The Varieties of Authoritarian Experience” (Yvonne Chiu, Professor of Strategy and Policy at the U.S. Naval War College, and Jeanne Kirkpatrick Visiting Fellow, American Enterprise Institute)
- Saturday, March 28th, 11am: “A Blurry Crystal Ball: What We Know (and don’t know) about the Future of World Politics.” (Stephen Walt, Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Affairs, The Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA)