Lecture Programs

Join the Fenton History Center for a DNA workshop on February 1, 2025, presented by Andrew Kolstee. Learn how to use DNA testing in genealogy at the Hall House Research Center (73 Forest Avenue) starting at 10:30 a.m. In-person only, with recordings for paid participants. Registration: $20/class ($10 for members). Call 716-664-6256 to register.

Join the Fenton History Center for a Vital Records workshop on March 22, 2025, presented by Janet Wahlberg. Discover how to use vital records in genealogy at the Hall House Research Center (73 Forest Avenue) starting at 10:30 a.m. In-person only, with recordings for paid participants. Registration: $20/class ($10 for members). Call 716-664-6256 to register.

Join the Fenton History Center for a Newspapers workshop on May 17, 2025, presented by Andrew Kolstee. Learn how to use newspapers in genealogy at the Hall House Research Center (73 Forest Avenue) starting at 10:30 a.m. In-person only, with recordings for paid participants. Registration: $20/class ($10 for members). Call 716-664-6256 to register.

Sian Leah Beilock is the 19th president of Dartmouth College, and the first woman in the role in Dartmouth’s 255-year history. In her first year, she has positioned Dartmouth as a global leader on critical issues in higher education and beyond, including climate change and sustainability, affordability for middle-income families and championing the importance of dialogue across differences. It is this vision of creating educational…

Early film pitches for Pixar’s Academy Award-winning “Inside Out” named comedian Lewis Black to illustrate how an iconic voice like that belonging to the “King of the Rant” could bring an emotion like “Anger” to life. Black went on to voice the character in both the 2015 film and its 2024 sequel — now the highest grossing animated film of all time; a fan of all things Pixar, Black has called the…

The recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and numerous literary awards, George Saunders is the celebrated author of a novel, four collections of short stories, a novella, a book of essays and a children’s book. His most recent collection, Liberation Day, is a masterful collection that explores ideas of power, ethics and justice, cutting to the very heart of what it means to live in community with…

Robert Doar and Cecilia Elena Rouse, presidents of two of the nation’s most highly regarded public policy think tanks, come together in conversation on the Amphitheater stage to lead off a week of dialogue on “The Future of the American Experiment,” presented at Chautauqua in partnership with AEI and Brookings. In providing their perspectives on the state of our democratic republic today — plus thoughts on its immediate…

Honoring a shared mission to change the world through the power of storytelling, award-winning author, poet, producer and educator Kwame Alexander returns to the Amphitheater stage to lead a series of conversations on making a positive difference. He launches this week for the Chautauqua Lecture Series with LeVar Burton — pop culture icon and champion of books, words and the right to read. LeVar Burton is an actor, author, director,…

Doris Kearns Goodwin is a world-renowned presidential historian, public speaker and Pulitzer Prize-winning, New York Times No. 1 best-selling author, most recently of An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s, published in April 2024. With five decades of scholarship studying Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson, Goodwin returns to the Chautauqua Lecture Series to open a week…