A resource for life-long learning.

Life-long learning is an Albright tradition, as is community service. We are delighted to be able to share the expertise of our faculty and staff as a resource with our community. Speakers are provided free of charge to non-profit organizations in Berks County.

Included in this guide, you will find speakers on a wide variety of topics, from the arts and sciences to computer technology, health, economics, spirituality, travel, politics and sports.

Founded in 1856, Albright College is a nationally recognized, four-year, liberal arts college with an interdisciplinary focus and pre-professional programs.

To request a speaker, please call the College Relations Office at 610-921-7526.

Go here for a printable version of this guide

AEROSPACE
History of Aviation Technology
The Concorde
Do We Really Need a Space Program?
Why the Wright Brothers Made a Difference
Zeppelins (author of Zeppelin!: Germany and the Airship 1900-1939)
- Guillaume de Syon, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History

ALBRIGHT COLLEGE
Albright College: Past, Present and Future
A Sesquicentennial Journey in Photographs
- Barbara Marshall, M.A., Associate Vice President of College Relations & Marketing

Albright’s Holocaust Resource Center
- Dan Tannenbaum, M.S.W., Coordinator of the Holocaust Resource Center, Gingrich Library

ANTHROPOLOGY
War and Violence: Why Humans Are So Mean!
Evolution and Natural Selection: What’s All the Fuss About?
The Confusion of Human Sexuality
Human Nature and Human Evolution: If Only We Had a Brain!
- Barton Thompson, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Anthropology and Environmental Studies

ARTS AND LITERATURE
Shakespeare’s Plays Milton’s Poems
Post Modern Aesthetics – “Men Have Named Her:” What Does the Mona Lisa Mean?
- Alberto Cacicedo, Ph.D., Professor of English

Poetry Reading: Painting God’s Portrait
- Paul E. Clark, M.Div., Chaplain and Director of the Multifaith Center/Lecturer in English

Holland Through its Artists
Rembrandt and His Art
Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel Interpreted
Rubens, a Baroque Master
- Barbara Fahy, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of History

Magical Realism in Modern Art and Literature
Tradition and Revolution in “One Hundred Years of Solitude”
A Lacanian Analysis of “Lazarillo de Tormes”
- John S. Incledon, Ph.D., Professor of Spanish

Needlework: Samplers and More
- Fianna Holt, M.S., Technical Services Librarian, Gingrich Library

Critical Approaches to Hip-Hop Culture
- Teresa Gilliams, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English

The History of Watercolor Painting
- Richard Hamwi, M.F.A., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Art

Totalitarianism and Art
German Literature
The World and Work of Marcel Proust
The Problems of Literary Culture in a Visually-Oriented Culture
History of Photography
Art History from 1700-present
- Newton A. Perrin, Ph.D., Professor of German and Art History

John Updike: John Updike’s Poetry
- Denise Greenwood, M.A., Instructor of English

Facing Reading: Stories from the Portrait Project (Faces of Reading)
- John R. Pankratz, Ph.D., Professor of History/Photographer

Rider and Other Works by the Author
- Marian Frances Wolbers, Instructor of ESL and English

ATHLETICS
Competitive Swimming
Lacrosse
Athletic Recruitment: Division III
- Gregory E. Eichhorn, M.B.A., Vice President of Enrollment Management/Dean of Admission

Sports Medicine
- William Santoro, M.D., Medical Director, Health Center

Athletics Recruiting
- Christopher Boehm, Director of Admission

AUTOMOBILES
Car Culture: The Automobile’s Arrival as Seen in Early Postcards
- Guillaume de Syon, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History

BUSINESS AND MARKETING
What Rate of Return Did Your Portfolio Manager Earn? Methods of Calculating Average Rates of Return
Introduction to Investing
- David A. Martin, C.F.A., Professor of Economics and Business Administration

Statistics: Use, Misuse and Abuse
- Stephen G. Mech, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biology

COMMUNICATION
Public Relations Basics for Community Organizations
- Barbara J. Marshall, M.A., Associate Vice President, College Relations & Marketing

History of Journalism: Chicago, Newsboys and Foreign Language Press
- Jon Bekken, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Communications

Social Media: Texting, Facebook, YouTube and other Social Media Trends
- David Johnson, M.B.A., Manager of Marketing Communications, College Relations & Marketing

ECONOMICS
The European Union and Turkey: Is it a Clash of Civilization?
How Much do We Deserve: A Look at Income Inequality in the U.S.
European Union Expansion: Consequences and Opportunities
- Lisa Wilder, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Economics

EDUCATION
College Admission Search: Nuts and Bolts on How to Find the Right College
Applying to College: Finding Your Way Through the Maze
Financial Aid: Making College Affordable
- Gregory E. Eichhorn, M.B.A., Vice President for Enrollment Management/Dean of Admission
- Chris Boehm, M.A., Director of Admission

Millennials: Changing Higher Education
- Chris Boehm, M.A., Director of Admission

Service Learning
- Richard Schott, M.B.A., Instructor in Economics and Business

Continuing Higher Education for Adults
- Mickey Baines, Director of Accelerated Degree Programs

THE ENVIRONMENT
Environment: Against the Wind
- Barton Thompson, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Anthropology and Environmental Studies

Columbus and the Discovery of the “New World:” True Wildlife Frontier
Water: Quality and Quantity—Working to Make it Better
A Caribbean Island Looking Out (coral reef) and Looking In (the land)
- Phillip Lynn Dougherty, Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry

FAMOUS PEOPLE
Albert Einstein: The Human Side
- Guillaume de Syon, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History

Thomas Mann
Franz Kafka
- Newton A. Perrin, Ph.D., Professor of German and Art History

FASHION
Merchandise Planning for Increasing Retail Productivity and Profit (includes forecasting sales, inventories, reductions and the calculation of a monthly open to buy)
- Doreen Burdalski, M.B.A., Assistant Professor of Fashion Merchandising

FILM, VIDEO AND DIGITAL MEDIA
Film & Video: History, Theory and Production
Experimental Media
- Gary L. Adlestein, M.A., Professor of English and Art

Subtitling Foreign Films on Video: A Workshop/Demonstration
“Kiss of the Spiderwoman”: The Spiderwoman as Psychoanalyst
- John S. Incledon, Ph.D., Professor of Spanish

Digital Daydreams: A Look at Visual Arts and Digital Image Construction
- Matthew Garrison, M.F.A., Assistant Professor of Digital Media

Film Culture
- Newton A. Perrin, Ph.D., Professor of German and Art History

FOREIGN COUNTRIES, CULTURE AND TRAVEL
Flying the Alaskan Highway
- Richard G. Heller, Ph.D., Professor of Biology

Pachamaca! Food and Feast in the Peruvian Andes
Where are Our Trains? Searching for Baldwin Locomotives in Peru and Chile
- M. Karen Jogan, Ph.D., Professor of Spanish

The Modern Middle East
Islam
Iran
Syria
- Geoffrey D. Schad, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of History

HISTORY
The Holocaust
The Jewish Community in Reading
The Holocaust Resource Center
- Dan Tannenbaum, M.S.W., Coordinator of the Holocaust Resource Center,
Gingrich Library

Family Values in the 17th Century
The Molly Maguires: A History of the Pennsylvania Coal Miners Who Organized into a Union in the 1860s and 1870s
- Barbara Fahy, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of History

History of the Industrial Workers of the World
History of Journalism: Chicago, Newsboys and Foreign Language Press
- Jon Bekken, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Communications

Nazi Germany and the German Weimar Republic
European History
Art History from 1700 to present
- Newton A. Perrin, Ph.D., Professor of German and Art History

The African-American Experience
The Significance of Black History Month
- Teresa Gilliams, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English

Irish History and Literature: Irish Legends
Irish Language: The State of Modern Irish
- Lawrence Morris, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English

The Atomic Age: Double bombings (Hiroshima, Nagasaki), why negotiating down nuclear weapons is so hard, the prospect and reality of a nuclear future in the 1950s and 1960s
The Holocaust
- Guillaume de Syon, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History

HUMAN RESOURCES
The Changing Role of a Human Resource Professional
Diversity Awareness Training
Leadership Development and Supervisor Training
- Timothy J. Steinrock, SPHR, Associate Vice President and Director of Human Resources

MUSIC
Critical Approaches to Hip-Hop Culture
- Teresa Gilliams, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
Local Governments in Berks County: Organization and Operation; Historical Development; Current Issues; and Citizen Participation
- John Kramer, M.R.P., Director of the Center for Community Leadership

Terrorism: Islam/Middle East
- Carla J. Abodalo, M.S., Instructor, Sociology and Criminology

Elections: How to Predict Presidential Election Results
- Thomas C. Brogan, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science

PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY
Close Relationships
Psychology and the Law
Stereotypes: How We Perceive and Judge Others
- Andrea Chapdelaine, Ph.D., Provost

The Relationship of Crime to Neighborhoods
Issues in Race, Class and Gender Inequality
Juvenile Delinquency
Urban Crime
- Kennon Rice, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminology

Domestic Violence
Organized Crime
Serial Murder
Terrorism
- Carla J. Abodalo, M.S., Instructor, Sociology and Criminology

Boys’ Night Out: Dark Masculinity and its Wounds
Lonesome Boy Blues: The Dark Roots of Sexual Fantasy
- Paul E. Clark, M.Div., Chaplain and Director of the Multifaith Center

RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY
Binding the Strong Man: The Biblical Basis for Nonviolent Resistance
- Paul E. Clark, M.Div., Chaplain and Director of the Multifaith Center

Religion in Cults: The Emergence of New Religious Movements
Selling Faith: Christian Mass Media and Popular Culture
- Charles M. Brown, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Sociology

Middle East and Islam
- Carla J. Abodalo, M.S., Instructor, Sociology and Criminology
- Geoffrey D. Schad, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of History

Monsters in the Bible: The Monsters of Creation
Monsters in the Bible: Monsters at the End of the World
- Jennifer Koosed, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Religious Studies

Religions of the East: Yogis, Buddha’s and Sages
- Victor Forte, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Religious Studies

The Northern Gods
- Lawrence Morris, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English

SCIENCE AND NATURE
Going Batty: The Biology of Bats
Human Physiology
Learning about Science
- Karen A. Campbell, Ph.D., P. Kenneth Nase, M.D. Chair of Biology

Under the Lens: Using Microscopes in Scientific Research
- Richard G. Heller, Ph.D., Professor of Biology

Global Pandemics and Avian Influenza: An Examination of Emerging Infectious Diseases from a Worldwide Perspective
Genomics and Advances in Understanding Cancer: A Look at New Technology Largely
Related to Genome Studies (understanding the cause, diagnosis, treatment of cancer)
- Gerald L. Kreider, Ph.D., Professor of Biology

All About Plants: Mosses to Maple Trees
The Effect of Deer on Pennsylvania Forests
Gardening: Garden Flowers and Their Wild Relatives
- Susan Munch, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Biology

Habitat Fragmentation: Human Impacts on Natural Systems & Possible Remedies
Conservation Genetics and Biology
Small Mammals
Statistics: Use, Misuse and Abuse
- Stephen G. Mech, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biology

WELLNESS
Asthma
Drug & Alcohol Issues
Family Medicine
HIV
Sports Medicine
- William Santoro, M.D., College Physician, Health Center

Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) for Women
- Samantha Wesner, CRNP, RNC, Assistant Dean of Students and Director of the Gable Health Center
- Robert Gerken, Director of Public Safety

WRITING
Be a Writer (or Just Look Like One)
- Marian Frances Wolbers, Instructor of ESL and English