The University Forum Committee (UFC) is responsible for bringing external speakers to the campus of Appalachian State University and is one of the university’s longest-running such series. Here are some of the speakers who have visited.
Spring 2022
- LaTosha Brown - “Who Will Save American Democracy? The Role of Women, Young Voters and People of Color in American Politics”
Fall 2022
- Dr. Annette Gordon-Reed - “On Juneteenth”
Spring 2021
- Dr. Spoma Jovanovic - “Finding Expression in Contested Public Spaces” `
- “Trail Magic: The Grandma Gatewood Story,” The first woman to hike the Appalachian Trail
Spring 2019-2020 - (Series canceled due to COVID Pandemic)
- Bette Lou Higgins - “Madam President: The Story of Victoria Woodhull”
- Bette Lou Higgins - “Trail Magic: The Grandma Gatewood Story”
- Film - “Suffragette”
- Shatema Threadcraft - “Redistributing Narrative Capital: Lynching, Rape and Stories of Black Peoplehood”
Fall 2019
- Heather Booth - film "Changing the World"
- Wendy Rouse - "Women's Suffrage, Self-Defense, and the Struggle for Equality in the Progressive Era"
- Safiya Noble - "Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism"
- Celeste Montoya - "From Seneca to Shelby: Intersectionality and Women's Voting Rights"
- Janet Jakobsen - "Sex and Suffrage: A Politics of Possibility"
2018-2019
- Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. - "With Justice for All: Human Rights at Home and Abroad"
2017-2018
- Nicholas Kristof - "Why Students Should Care About the World & Change It"
2016-2017
- David Pogue - "America and Science: The Path to Success in the Unrecognizable New World of Tech and Culture"
2015-2016
- Carl Zimmer - "A Journey to the Center of Your Brain"
- Mae Jemison - "Exploring the Frontiers of Science and Human Potential"
2014-2015
- Morris Dees - "With Justice for All"
- Timothy DeChristopher - "A Movement with Soul"
- Mary Frances Berry - "Whatever Happened to the Civil Rights Movement?"
2013-2014
Co-sponsored by the Multicultural Center as part of the university's celebration of Martin Luther King Day
- Andrew Solomon - "Far From the Tree: Parents, Children & and the Search for Identity"
- Soledad O'Brien - "An Evening with Soledad O'Brien"
2012-2013
Joint Sponsorship with the Morgan Lectures in the Sciences
- Michael Mann - "The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars"
- Harold McGee - "The Chemistry of Food and Cooking"
2011-2012
Theme: Borders and Bridges: What Divides Us, What Unites Us
- Reza Aslan - "Understanding Muslims and the Future of the New Middle East"
- Barbara Martinez Jitner - "On the Border of a New America: Wall of Shadows"
2009-2010
- Peter Bergen - "Osama’s War: Global Terrorism and the Urgency for a Stable Afghanistan"
- Harold Holzer - "Why Lincoln Matters–To History, To Our Presidents, and Us"
- Edward Larson - "The Scopes Trial in History and the Theater"
Theme: The Darwin Bicentennial Celebration Continued
- Michael Ruse - "Darwin at Two Hundred Years Old: Does He Still Speak to Us?"
- James Costa - "Charles Darwin and the Origin of the Origin"
- Sean Carroll - "Into the Jungle: The Epic Search for the Origins of Species and the Discoveries that Forged a Revolution"
- Paul Ewald - "Darwinian Insights into the Causes and Prevention of Cancer"
- Jonathan Weiner - "The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time"
- Elisabeth Lloyd - "Darwinian Evolution and the Female Orgasm: Explanations and Puzzles"
- Niles Eldredge - "Darwin, the Beagle, and the Origin of Modern Evolutionary Biology"
2008-2009
Theme: The Darwin Bicentennial Celebration
- Eugenie Scott - "Why Darwin Matters"
- Jay Hosler - "Comic Books, Darwin and the “E” Word"
- John Haught - "Evolution and Faith: What is at Stake?"
- Ken Miller - "Is Evolution “Only a Theory?”: Charles Darwin and the Design of Life"
- Janet Browne - "Commemorating Darwin: 1809-2008: A History of Prior Darwin Celebrations"
2007-2008
- Gloria Steinem - "The Progression of Feminism"