Campus Life

UWF Rite of Passage Series to feature Barbara Larson and Michelle Williams

The University of West Florida will honor Drs. Barbara Larson and Michelle Williams at the UWF Rite of Passage Lecture Series event on Friday, Nov. 7 at 2 p.m.at the Argonaut Athletic Club.

The UWF Rite of Passage Lecture Series is a distinguished lecture series celebrating UWF faculty who were recently promoted to full professor. The series gives professors the opportunity to share life lessons outside of the classroom with colleagues, students, friends and community members.

Larson, professor of art, will present a lecture titled, “Considering the Two Cultures Debate.” Larson is the author of The Dark Side of Nature: Science, Society and the Fantastic in the Work of Odilon Redon and lead editor of The Art of Evolution: Darwin, Darwinisms and Visual Culture, and Darwin and Theories of Aesthetics and Cultural History. She has contributed catalogue essays to many international exhibitions and is published widely in journals on issues in art and science around 1900.

Williams, professor of government, will present a lecture titled, “Climbing Every Mountain, To Do What I Love and Love What I Do.” Her research interests include far right parties; nationalism and ethnic politics; political parties and party systems; political institutions; European politics; and scholarship of teaching and learning with emphasis on information literacy. Her books includeThe Multicultural Dilemma: Migration, Ethnic Politics, and State Intermediation and The Impact of Radical Right-wing Parties in West European Democracies. She is also published in many scholarly journals including Party Politics; Análise Social; Nationalism and Ethnic Politics; Journal of Contemporary European Studies; German Politics; PS: Political Science and Politics; and the Journal of Political Science Education.

A reception will immediately follow the lecture. The event is free and open to the public.