Think Fast

For nearly 10 years, the School’s 60-Second Lectures series has challenged audiences and faculty alike to process a career’s worth of knowledge in just one minute. The outdoor, public talks feature experts ranging across the breadth of the School, addressing topics as universal as climate change and as specific as hip-hop in the Middle East.

“The 60-Second Lectures series has been a great way to showcase the incredible diversity and talent of the SAS faculty,” says Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Robert A. Fox Leadership Professor, and Professor of Mathematics Dennis DeTurck, who serves as master of ceremonies at the lectures. “It provides a convenient, quirky way to become aware of topics that are relevant, interesting, and fun. And where else can you learn so much in 60 seconds?”

A select few lecturers have returned for a second round. One of them is Rogers Smith, Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science, whose topics include “How to Protect Civil Liberties While Protecting Against Terrorism” and “Why Supreme Court Decisions Are Hard to Read, and Why We Should Read Them Anyway.”

“The 60-Second Lectures series threatens to confirm every academic’s nightmare that all those business and government officials may be right: Our arguments can be boiled down to one-twentieth their size without much loss!” says Smith. “It really dramatized for me the evidence needed to support what I was arguing.”