Insights Lecture Series

Lectures and book events featuring local and national experts speaking on a variety of subjects chosen for their relevance and their ability to spark insight and dialogue. All lectures are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted, and most will be livestreamed online on Museum Center's Ustream channel.

Upcoming lectures:

Thursday, June 20: Cincinnati's Abandoned Subway
Thursday, July 18: John Ruthven lecture

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Who: Paige E. Malott, Multimedia Director, Aubergine Imagery
What: Cincinnati's Abandoned Subway: Documentary film and discussion
When: 7 p.m. Thursday, June 20
Where: Reakirt Auditorium

In 1928, a six-mile rapid transit system was erected underneath Cincinnati's Central Parkway but never put into use. A story of corruption, politics, and greed surrounds one of the most advanced transportation structures of the time. This lecture is presented by Paige E. Malott, producer of the 2010 PBS documentary, Cincinnati’s Abandoned Subway. Since the film's debut, Malott has continued to lecture about the underground tunnels at universities, libraries and professional organizations. Her most recent documentary, The Siege of Cincinnati, explores the greatest Civil War battle never fought and can be viewed at Cincinnati Museum Center.

Click here to RSVP to this lecture →

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Join us at 7 p.m. for a lecture from world-renowned wildlife artist John Ruthven, whose work can been seen in our exhibit Treasures of the Natural World: Nature Art from the Collection of Cincinnati Museum Center. Check back soon for more details!

Previous lectures

Sunday, November 18

Special Double Offering of Dead Sea Scrolls Lectures

Debora Ben Ami, Israel Antiquities Authority
Jerusalem in the First Temple Period, the City of Kings, the City of God
1 p.m. in Reakirt Auditorium

Jerusalem is absorbed with history covering more than 5,000 years of long, rich and uninterrupted culture. In this lecture, some of the archaeological finds which were excavated in Jerusalem throughout the years are presented. These provide a glimpse into the cultural, spiritual and everyday life in Israel and Judah in general and in the city of Jerusalem in particular. Together with the evidence to the destructive effect brought by the large powers, the story of Jerusalem is told loud and clear through the silent remains.  

Pnina Shor, Israel Antiquities Authority
The Conservation and Preservation of the Dead Sea Scrolls
3 p.m. in Reakirt Auditorium

The conservation, preservation and documentation of the Dead Sea Scrolls have concerned both scholars and conservators ever since their discovery. The Israel Antiquities Authority, in cooperation with international experts, has decided to reevaluate the current conservation techniques. Join us as the Curator and Head of Dead Sea Scrolls Projects, Pnina Shor, discusses the Israel Antiquities Authority's modern conservation efforts, including a new digitization project that allows non-invasive yet precise monitoring of the scrolls.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Who: Dr. Ray Takigiku, CEO and President, Bexion Pharmaceuticals
What: Fighting Cancer: Is the Glass Half-Empty or Half-Full?
When: 7 p.m. Thursday, January 17
Where: Reakirt Auditorium

Is cancer "The Emperor of All Maladies"?  In 1971, Richard Nixon declared a "war on cancer."  In 2012, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 2 men will develop cancer, almost 600,000 people will die of it, and another $2 billion tax dollars will have been spent. The Human Genome Project contributed to the myth of a magic crystal ball of curing disease, including cancer.  But the reality is that cancer is more than genes, and as recent studies have shown, it is more than a single kind of aberrant cell. In evolving it becomes smarter than the treatments meant to kill it.

Perhaps, then, Dr. Takigiku says, we ought to focus some attention on cancer evolution. Can we leverage the Darwinian dynamics of adaptive evolution to treat and potentially eliminate tumors?  In fact, despite the genetic complexity of cancer, it can be described by a small number of underlying principles. Described by Douglas Hanahan and Robert Weinberg as "The Hallmarks of Cancer," these overarching characteristics may hold a clue for a new, and revolutionary way of treating this disease. This presentation will explore the dynamic nature of cancer, and describe a new approach to treat it by attacking at least some of those evolutionary attributes.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Who: Dr. Risa Levitt Kohn, Professor and Chair, Religious Studies Department Classics & Humanities Department Director, Jewish Studies Program San Diego State University
What: Jewish and Christian Origins as Revealed by the Dead Sea Scrolls
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday, January 29
Where: Reakirt Auditorium

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has revolutionized our understanding of Jewish and Christian origins. We have learned these groups were impacted by earlier Israelite religion, thought and tradition. This lecture explores the treasure trove of information found in the Dead Sea Scrolls about the rituals, practices and theology at the root of the Judeo-Christian world.

NOTE: This lecture will not be livestreamed or recorded.

Presented in collaboration with

Monday, February 4, 2013

Photo credit: Jim Haberman

Who: Dr. Jodi Magness, Senior Endowed Chair in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: The Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism
What: The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls
When: Monday, February 4, 6 p.m. reception, 7 p.m. lecture
Where: Reakirt Auditorium

In 1947, A Bedouin boy accidentally discovered ancient scrolls in a cave on the shore of the Dead Sea. These remains of more than 900 different scrolls have come to be called the Dead Sea Scrolls, which include Biblical books and literature describing the beliefs and practices of the Jewish sect that originally deposited the scrolls. At least some of the members of this sect are believed to have lived at the site of Qumran. In this lecture, Dr. Magness will discuss the archaeology of Qumran and the connection between the site and the scrolls from the cave.

Presented in collaboration with the University of Cincinnati Classics Department, Archaeological Institute of America and Israel@65

NOTE: This lecture will not be livestreamed or recorded.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Who: Dr. Eugene C. Ulrich, John A. O'Brien Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame
What: The Impact of the Dead Sea Scrolls on our Bible
When: 7 p.m. Thursday, March 7
Where: Reakirt Auditorium

The Dead Sea Scrolls include approximately 240 Hebrew and Greek biblical manuscripts that are 1,000 years older than previously known manuscripts. They illuminate a previously undocumented period in the history of the biblical books, showing an organic process of developmental composition for the biblical books and raising questions about revelation, inspiration and the canon. In this lecture, a collaboration with Notre Dame Club of Greater Cincinnati, Dr. Ulrich will discuss how many of the Dead Sea Scrolls superior variant readings have brought improvements (including the recovery of a whole paragraph) to recent translations of the Bible.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Who: Kevin Pape, President, Gray & Pape Inc.
What: Urban Archaeology Reveals New Perspectives on the Lives and Deaths of Early Cincinnatians
When: 7 p.m. Thursday, March 21
Where: Reakirt Auditorium

In this lecture, learn from two examples how archaeologists use material culture to shed light on the early history of Cincinnati. New developments in downtown Cincinnati have given archaeologists the opportunity to study the city’s first riverfront community and the resting place of its earliest pioneers. At The Banks, archaeologists investigated 19th-century historical deposits buried beneath pavement between the Roebling Suspension Bridge and Paul Brown Stadium. Excavations uncovered buildings constructed in the early 1850s, where artifacts associated with their inhabitants revealed how they participated in local, regional and international markets. Archaeological and historical investigations of the former Episcopal Society of Christ Church burial grounds were conducted for the renovation and expansion of Washington Park. Discover how archaeologists and historians utilized archival records, artifacts, engraved headstones, coffin/casket forms and skeletal analysis to interpret mortuary practices and demographics during the cemetery’s use between 1808 and 1855.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Who: Dr. James ‘Whitey’ Hagadorn, Tim and Kathryn Ryan Curator of Geology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science
What: Surfing Cambrian Coasts: First Animals on Land
When: 7 p.m. Thursday, April 4, 2013
Where: The Geier Collections & Research Center, 760 W. Fifth St., Cincinnati, OH 45203*

Long before fish-like tetrapods began to crawl from the sea onto land, arthropods, mollusks and kin began colonizing the terrestrial realm. The landscape these early pioneers invaded was very different than the world we know today. Instead of forests and meadows, the land was covered in a moonscape of regolith, likely dissected by ropy braided rivers, giant tidal flats, and smeared with a frosting of microbial or other slime. In rare cases some of these pioneers were trapped or made unsuccessful forays onto Cambrian beaches, tidal flats, and coastal dunes - leaving behind three-dimensional molds of their decaying carcasses. Superimposed upon, and interspersed between these fossils are a diverse array of microbial sedimentary structures and bedforms that suggest that these animals may have fed upon the very biofilms that later helped to preserve a record of their activities.

*Please note that the Geier Collections & Research Center is not a public facility. Please use the West Fifth Street entrance to the building. This is the only accessible entrance to the building. There are large security gates at this entrance - please press the buzzer on the outside of these gates to let the staff know of your arrival. You will be let in by a staff member. Parking is available in the West Fifth Street parking lot, on West Fifth Street and in the parking lot of Cincinnati Belt and Transmission to the north of the building.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

What: Water Quality Panel
When: 7 p.m. Thursday, April 18
Where: Reakirt Auditorium

"Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink." This quote from the English Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge exemplifies the concern that water can be abundant but unusable. In the 1960s, our country faced a significant water pollution problem that by some accounts would make our water undrinkable if not addressed. On October 2, 1965, President Johnson signed the Water Quality Act, preventing water pollution by requiring states to establish and enforce water quality standards for interstate waterways. Join us and a panel of experts moderated by Dr. Stanley Hedeen as we explore how far we have come and discuss the old debate on whether or not our water is safe to drink.