Blue Ridge Preview: Spring 2025!
The Blue Ridge Center is excited to announce some highlights from our roster of speakers for the 2025 spring semester! Covering topics as diverse as affirmative action, sports betting, and the relationship between science and faith, this semester will provide many excellent opportunities for students to engage with BRC programming. Here are some of the highlights looking forward:
On January 28th, students will have the opportunity to hear from Tom McCarthy, who helped design the lawsuits against Harvard and UNC that resulted in the Supreme Court’s historic affirmative action decision in Students for Fair Admission v. Harvard. He will be discussing this case and the implications for the future of affirmative action.
On February 10th, the Blue Ridge Center will welcome Charles Lehman and Brent Scher to grounds for a debate on one of today’s most contentious issues and most lucrative industries: sports betting!
On February 19th, Blue Ridge will join the Veritas Forum in an attempt to provide an answer to the perennial question: what gives my life meaning? We are happy to welcome Dr. Curt Thompson and Professor David Constanza to discuss this query.
On April 1st, Blue Ridge is excited to announce that we will be hosting dynamic thinker and Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle, who will be speaking to our students about politics in the age of social media.
In addition to these fascinating events, Blue Ridge will be hosting eleven reading groups and book clubs this semester!
Blue Ridge reading groups are small, focused weekly sessions where students are met with the opportunity to dive deep into a topic that they may encounter only sparingly in a standard university curriculum. Some of our reading group topics this semester include:
Antisemitism: a History of Hate
The Civil War in Appalachia
Natural Law
Atlas Shrugged
Our first book club, featuring the Jane Austen classic, Pride and Prejudice
As well as The Twentysomething Treatment, with author and psychologist Meg Jay!
This spring promises to be another great semester for Blue Ridge programming, and we are excited to have more opportunities to intellectually engage UVA’s student body.