All events are admission-free, and doors open 30 minutes prior to the beginning of each one. All facilities are accessible without climbing stairs. Audio-description services and interpreters will be provided with 72-hour notice prior to each event. Questions may be sent to wittseries@wittenberg.edu.
2024-2025 Wittenberg Series Events
Opening Convocation
Amy McGuffey, Ph.D. '95
Wittenberg Professor of Education 2014-2024
3 p.m. Thursday, August 22, 2024
Pam Evans Smith Arena
Health, Wellness & Athletics Complex (HWA)
- Presentation Title: "Resilience of the Rock"
Amy R. McGuffey, Ph.D., will kick off the 2024-25 Wittenberg Series as the featured speaker for the annual Opening Convocation & Welcome. The recipient of the 2024 Alumni Association’s Award for Distinguished Teaching, McGuffey is a 1995 graduate of Wittenberg, where she earned her B.A. in elementary education. She then received an M.A. in education from Urbana University and a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Dayton. Since joining the faculty ranks of Wittenberg in 2014, she has been involved in many initiatives across campus, including First Year Seminar, and is a member of Faculty Executive Board. She teaches a range of courses, from Sociological Perspectives in Education to Teaching Social Studies in Secondary Schools. Her research has appeared in a variety of publications, including the Ohio Association of Secondary School Administrators Update, the NASSP Bulletin, and the Journal of School Public Relations.
Allen J. Koppenhaver Literary Lecture
Susan Burton
Author and Award-winning Podcaster
7 p.m. Monday, October 28, 2024
Weaver Chapel
- Presentation Title: “The Stories We Tell About Pain”
- Event Program
Susan Burton is the host, writer, reporter, and co-producer of the Peabody Award-winning podcast series The Retrievals, which recounts the pain experienced by dozens of women undergoing fertility treatment at the Yale Fertility Center. Her memoir, Empty (Random House 2020), tells the story of the eating disorders she kept secret for most of her life. The book was selected for Booklist’s Top 10 Memoirs of 2020, Newsweek’s 20 Must-Read Books of the Summer, and Marie Claire’s Best Memoirs 2020 list. An editor at This American Life, Burton has produced many episodes including “Secrets,” “Ten Sessions,” “Five Women,” “The Thing I’m Getting Over,” and “Tell Me I’m Fat.” Her writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Slate, The New Yorker, and others, and she is a former editor of Harper’s.
Lessons and Carols for Advent & Christmas
7:30 p.m. Friday, December 6, 2024
Pre-service music begins at 7 p.m.
Weaver Chapel
Offering a time of music and reflection as the Advent season unfolds, this service concludes with a candlelit singing of “Silent Night.” Wittenberg’s music ensembles will perform.
Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation
Nic Stone
Bestselling Author and Racial and Social Justice Advocate
10 a.m. Monday, January 20, 2025
Weaver Chapel
Nic Stone is the author of the No. 1 New York Times bestselling novel Dear Martin, the first book in a trilogy for young adults that includes Dear Justyce and Dear Manny (expected in March 2025). Dear Martin chronicles the story of a 17-year-old Black high school student after a violent run-in with the police places him squarely in the crosshairs of media fallout. Stone is also the author of blockbusters Fast Pitch, Odd One Out, Jackpot, and Clean Getaway. A racial and social justice advocate, she collaborated with Ibram X. Kendi in co-authoring How to Be a (Young) Antiracist and presents around the country on the topic. Having had her books banned in various parts of the U.S., she advocates for reading freedoms in public education.
Fred R. Leventhal Family Lecture
Robert Samuels
Pulitzer Prize-winning Author and Washington Post Journalist
7 p.m. Thursday, April 24, 2025
Weaver Chapel
- Presentation Title: “His Name is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice”
Robert Samuels, acclaimed Washington Post journalist and nonfiction author, earned literary prominence after winning the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for His Name Is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice. The book received widespread recognition, including the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonfiction and finalist honors from the National Book Awards for nonfiction. Known for his powerful storytelling, Robert's mission at the Washington Post centers on distinct and essential stories unearthing complicated truths about American history, institutions, and people. His features have earned the George Polk Award for justice reporting, the Peabody Award for “The Life of George Floyd” podcast, and the National Association of Black Journalists Award for Investigative Reporting.
Wittenberg Series Archives
- 2023-24 Wittenberg Series
- 2022-23 Wittenberg Series
- 2020-22 Wittenberg Series Events (limited due to pandemic restrictions)
- 2019-20 Wittenberg Series
- 2018-19 Wittenberg Series
- 2017-18 Wittenberg Series
Click here to see complete history of all Wittenberg Series performers/speakers since the program's inception in 1982.