SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Performances by Wofford Theatre and the Dunlap Chamber Music Series highlight events in November at Wofford College. Other events include guest lectures and gallery exhibitions.

All events are open to the public and are free of charge unless otherwise noted. Please check the online calendar at calendar.wofford.edu for frequent updates. For athletics events, please go to athletics.wofford.edu.

For more information, contact Laura Corbin at woffordnews@wofford.edu or 864-597-4180.

Thursday, Nov. 3
Olin and Muffet Sansbury Lecture Series: “The End of White Christian America and Its Implications for the 2016 Election”
Speaker: Robert Jones, Public Religion Research Institute
7 p.m., Leonard Auditorium, Main Building
Dr. Robert P. Jones, CEO of Public Religion Research Institute, will discuss “The End of White Christian America and Its Implications for the 2016 Election.” Jones’ book, “The End of White Christian America,” has been hailed by the New York Times Review of Books as “quite possibly the most illuminating text for this election year. Drawing on decades of public opinion and demographic research, Jones challenges readers to grasp a new reality – that America is no longer a majority white Christian nation – and examines what influence this will have on the 2016 presidential election.

Thursday, Nov. 3, through Saturday, Nov. 5
Wofford Theatre: “In the Next Room” by Sarah Ruhl
8 nightly, Tony White Theater, Campus Life Building
“In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play” by Sarah Ruhl is a thought-provoking comedy about sex, love, romance and marriage, and how rare it is for people to experience them all together. Described by The New York Times as “"a sex comedy designed not for sniggering teenage boys ... but for adults with open hearts and minds,” Ruhl’s play is set in the 1880s, at the dawn of the electrical era and the height of the sexually repressive Victorian era. The play follows Catherine Givings, a new mother and wife of a doctor who treats women diagnosed with “hysteria” in his home office. The play is historically accurate in representing doctor-administered vibrator treatment for patients with hysteria, a catch-all diagnosis for almost any complaint, including headaches, irritable disposition, the lack (or excess) of sexual desire and quarrelsomeness. With her husband’s examination room just off the living room, and the living room doubling as the patient waiting room, Catherine grows increasingly curious about the sounds coming from the next room.

Monday, Nov. 7
Dunlap Chamber Music Concert
7 p.m., Leonard Auditorium
Ashu, winner of numerous major international awards traditionally won by pianists and violinists, will perform in a program of Piazzola, Rachmanioff and other original compositions, including music from “Cinema Paradiso.” Ashu made his recital debut at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Since then, concerto and recital performances have taken him around the world, including last year throughout Russia, South Africa, Finland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Kyrgyzstan, Switzerland, Poland, Great Britain, New Zealand, and North America. Critics have described him as “just as much fun to watch as to listen to” (Dallas Morning News) and “ready to cultivate the masses” (Chicago Tribune). Born and raised in California, Ashu began playing the saxophone at age 10. With a growing demand from major concert series, his recent concerto and recital engagements include the Ravinia Festival, Carnegie Hall, Zurich Tonhalle, Vienna Konzerthaus, Singapore Esplanade, NY Central Park, Kravis Center, La Jolla Music Society, and more. Ashu recently won the prestigious “Audience Prize” at the International Musical Olympus Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia. He has also won first prizes at competitions including the International Heida Hermanns, International Kingsville Wind Instrumentalist, International Salon De Virtuosi, American Opera Society, National Alliance for Excellence, and Houston Symphony Concerto Competitions. Ashu graduated from Northwestern University and is based in Chicago.

Wednesday, Nov. 9, through Saturday, Nov. 12
Wofford Theatre: “In the Next Room” by Sarah Ruhl
8 nightly, Tony White Theater, Campus Life Building
(See description above)

Thursday, Nov. 10
Artist Talk and Opening Reception: “Bodies of Light” Exhibition
4 p.m., Martha Cloud Chapman Gallery, Sandor Teszler Library
Meagan Burns, Wofford Class of 2017 and an English major, will discuss her art released in the Whetsell Exhibit, “Bodies of Light.” Burns’ exhibit illustrates critical perspectives on social structures in the natural worlds. In her newest work, she returns to the concepts regarding our relationship to the world around us presented by writing, such as Emerson and Thoreau, of the Transcendentalist movement and the Romantic era. The exhibition runs Tuesday, Nov 8, through Monday, Jan. 30, 2017.

Thursday, Nov. 10
Guest Lecture: “Picturing the Norman Conquest of England on the Bayeux ‘Tapestry’”
Speaker: Elizabeth Pastan, Emory University
7 p.m., Leonard Auditorium, Main Building
Elizabeth Pastan, professor of art history at Emory University, will speak on "Picturing the Norman Conquest of England on the Bayeux 'Tapestry.'" The Bayeux Tapestry is the world's largest surviving medieval textile. It appears to depict the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. Working closely with images of the pictorial narrative from both the front and back of the textile, Pastan provides new explanations, while introducing this famous example. Presented by the Wofford Department of Art and Art History.

Monday, Nov. 14
Guest Lecture: “The Impact of Federal Regulation on the Fifty States”
Speaker: Dr. Patrick McLaughlin, George Mason University
4:30 p.m., Leonard Auditorium, Main Building
Economist Dr. Patrick McLaughlin, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, will speak on regulations and the regulatory process. McLaughlin co-founded and leads the RegData team at Mercatus, which has developed machine-learning methods to measure regulatory law. He is a co-author of the book “The Impact of Federal Regulation on the Fifty States.”

Monday, Nov. 14, through Thursday, Nov. 17
Weeklong Wofford Environmental Film Festival
7 nightly, Olin Teaching Theater, Franklin W. Olin Building
Each night during the Wofford Environmental Film Festival, a contemporary, feature-length environmental film with be screened. After each screening, opportunities will be available for discussion. All screenings are free and open to the public.

Wednesday, Nov. 23
No classes

Thursday, Nov. 24, and Friday, Nov. 25
Campus Closed for Thanksgiving Holiday

Wednesday, Nov. 30
Guest Lecture: “Humanitarian Interventionism and the War Lobby: The Case of the Syrian Diaspora in the First World War”
Speaker: Edward Allaire Falk, University of California at San Diego
5 p.m., Olin Teaching Theater, Franklin W. Olin Building
Edward Allaire Falk, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California at San Diego, will speak on the role of the Syrian diaspora in advocating for a humanitarian intervention in Syria by the allied powers in World War I. His talk, based on research in Lebanese, French and Turkish archives, seeks to connect the cultural production of Syrian poets, playwrights and authors with the political lobbying of that community. His broader research examines the role of education in the creation of Lebanese identity and nationalism in the Ottoman period. Sponsored by the Middle Eastern and North African Studies Program.

GALLERY EXHIBITIONS:

Tuesday, Nov. 8, through Monday, Jan. 30, 2017
Whetsell Exhibition: “Bodies of Light”
Martha Cloud Chapman Gallery, Campus Life Building
Meagan Burns, Class of 2017, illustrates critical perspectives on social structures in the natural worlds. In her newest work, she returns to the concepts regarding our relationship to the world around us presented by writing, such as Emerson and Thoreau, of the Transcendentalist movement and the Romantic era.

Through Friday, Nov. 4
Cold War Propaganda Posters
Martha Cloud Chapman Gallery, Campus Life Building
The Martha Cloud Chapman Gallery features the collection of posters that demonstrates the intense ideological conflict of the Cold War. The posters from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe present communists’ critiques of capitalism with imagery so vivid they do not require translation. The posters also provide clear, contrasting views of who was the aggressor in the conflict, the Soviet Union or the United States/NATO. The time period of the posters, from the 1940s to 1980s, highlights how, although the intensity of the ideological conflict varied throughout the war, it always was present to some degree.

Through Thursday, Dec. 15
Recently Acquired Asian Art
Sandor Teszler Library Gallery
The exhibition features selected works of Asian art from Wofford’s permanent collection. The exhibition includes Chinese ink rubbings, Japanese prints and ceramic pieces, among various other items.