University of Mary Washington‘s Great Lives Lecture Series in 2025 will profile a civil rights leader, America‘s first Black poet, a broadcast journalist, Native Americans and more.
The series began as a class at UMW taught by professor of history Dr. William B. Crawley which provided a free public lecture series.
Next year marks the 22nd season and a change in leadership as Crawley will step down as director. Co-director Scott Harris, a 1983 graduate of UMW and executive director of UMW Museums, will become director.
“No one has benefited perhaps more than I have, because [Great Lives] has allowed me to interact with some of the most interesting and preeminent writers and scholars of our time … including a number of Pulitzer Prize winners,” Crawley said. Under his leadership, the series featured more than 325 subjects and many lectures were later broadcast on C-SPAN.
The series, held Tuesdays and Thursdays through March, begins January 21, 2025 with New York Times bestselling author and reporter Liza Mundy’s “The Sisterhood: The Secret Women of the CIA,” Mundy brought her book “Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II” to UMW in 2018.
Other profile subjects in 2025 will be senator and civil rights leader John Lewis, broadcast journalist Barbara Walters, controversial baseball player Pete Rose, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull.
The lecture series is made possible by John and Mary Lou Chappell.
Harris, a former student of Crawley’s, has served as co-director for one year. He earned a bachelor’s in history and historic preservation from UMW and a master’s in history and museum administration from the College of William and Mary. His employment with UMW began in 2011 and he began his position overseeing Gari Melchers Home and Studio at Belmont, the James Monroe Museum and the Papers of James Monroe in 2018. Harris is past president of the Virginia Association of Museums and editorial advisor and frequent contributor to the White House Historical Association’s journal, White House History Quarterly.
“Bill, you have been my teacher, my colleague and my friend,” Harris said. “It’s been a privilege to work with you over this past year on Great Lives, and I’m more honored than I can say to succeed you.”
Great Lives lectures begin at 7:30 p.m. in George Washington Hall’s Dodd Auditorium at 1301 College Ave., Fredericksburg. All lectures are free and open to the public.
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Rebecca Barnabi
