Greene’s series lifts great ideas off the page

As an Echols scholar, Rachel Elizabeth Greene (Interdisciplinary ’01) has the freedom to study in many departments and the luxury of being taught by a variety of professors. And it is precisely these diverse instructors who have allowed her to launch a lecture series modeled on her wide range of interests. Her Great Ideas Lecture Series is intentionally eclectic because, as she puts it, “by nature, great ideas range across interdisciplinary boundaries.”

The series of Sunday afternoon public discussions, now in its third year, gives the College’s most renowned professors the opportunity to discuss their favorite books. Greene, who has always loved books but has too little time to read them all, signed up some of her most memorable professors from her first year for the series. College greats such as Ken Elzinga (Economics), Ed Ayers (History) and Harry Gamble (Religious Studies) have shared the ideas contained in great literary works, including William Faulkner’s “Absalom, Absalom!”, Shakespeare’s “Coriolanus” and Augustine’s “Confessions” — works that Greene and the dozens of people who attend the lectures might not otherwise experience.

Greene believes that literary ideas often raise questions that span generations, and she hopes each speaker will address how those ideas shape our current traditions and beliefs. Sponsored by the Jefferson and Echols Scholars programs, the series includes five lectures a year. Greene, who began the program in only her second year, has received high praise for the project. “This is exactly what should happen on Sunday afternoons,” audience member Catalina Ocampo (Comparative Literature ’01) said after English Professor Paul Cantor’s September lecture on “Corilanus.”