The Wabash College Lecture Committee is pleased to welcome Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar, Dr. Richard Leppert. Leppert will speak on the topic of “Water Music, or Caruso in the Jungle” on Tuesday, September 14 at 8 p.m. The lecture will be held in the New Science Building Main Lecture Hall.
Leppert is the Samuel Russell Distinguished Chair in the Humanities at the University of Minnesota. His research addresses the relations of music, imagery, and associated practices to social and cultural formation, principally revolving around issues of gender, class, and race in Europe and America from early modernity to the present. Leppert’s work is shaped by critical theory and the socially grounded aesthetics of the Frankfurt School; Adorno especially, as well as poststructuralist cultural theory more generally. He is the author of seven books, including Art and the Committed Eye: The Cultural Functions of Imagery. Leppert received his Ph.D. in musicology from Indiana University in 1973.
In addition to his main public address, Leppert will introduce the film Fitzcarraldo at 7 p.m. on Sunday, September 12. It will take place in the main lecture hall of the New Science Building. He will also conduct a seminar on the compelling views of the philosopher Adorno on popular music at 4:15 p.m. on Monday, September 13 in Center Hall, room 216.
Leppert’s talks are free and open the public.