Grawemeyer Award winners to give public talks

Recipients of the 2015 Grawemeyer Awards will discuss their winning works at the University of Louisville and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in April. April 1, 2015

UofL presents Grawemeyer Awards each year in music composition, world order, psychology and education. The university and seminary jointly give an award in religion. This year’s awards are $100,000 each.

Here’s the schedule for the free, public talks:

  • Rutgers University law professor Mark Weiner will speak April 15 at 2 p.m. in Ekstrom Library’s Chao Auditorium. He won the world order award for “The Rule of the Clan,” a book outlining why understanding clan-based cultures is key to the survival of democratic nations.

  • School reform experts Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan will speak April 15 at 5 p.m. in the University Club Ballroom. They won the education award for their book “Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School,” which says teachers perform best when allowed to learn from peers and decide things as a team.

  • Duke Divinity School theologian Willie James Jennings will speak April 15 at 7 p.m. in the seminary’s Caldwell Chapel. He won the religion award for “The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race,” a book explaining Christianity’s role in creating racial divides.

  • University of California-Irvine neurobiologist James McGaugh will speak April 16 at noon in Comstock Hall, School of Music. He won the psychology award for discovering that emotions play a major part in determining why we remember some things more vividly than others.

Music winner Wolfgang Rihm is currently unable to travel to Louisville.

Complete details on the awards and winners appear at www.grawemeyer.org. For more information, call Denise Fitzpatrick at 502-852-1107 or Chris Wooton at 502-992-9358.