Minds Meet at Festival of Ideas

From the ambiguities of world politics to the glories of athletic achievement, the speakers at the 1999 Festival of Ideas lecture series shared many insights and experiences with WVU students and the community throughout a six-week period in February and March. 

Each year, the Festival of Ideas brings key figures from the fields of sports, politics, business, entertainment, research, scholarship, and culture to Morgantown. Coordinated by students through the WVU Office of Arts and Entertainment, the 1999 series opened with Scott Ritter, former chief United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq.

Other speakers this year included F.W. de Klerk, the last president to govern South Africa under apartheid, Olympic gold meda Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and cast members from MTV's The Real World.

Former New Republic editor Andrew Sullivan, anonymous Primary Colors author Joe Klein, and political consultants James Carville and Mary Matalin spoke to packed audiences. Actress and playwright Anna Deavere Smith discussed her views on how race, class, and gender have shaped American culture. Paleoanthropologist Meave Leakey talked about her search for the world's earliest upright-walking human ancestors.

Entrepreneur Tom Scott, co-owner of Nantucket Nectars, a million-dollar juice company, discussed his company's rise from a two-man start-up. Jan Schlictmann, John Travolta's character in the movie A Civil Action, chronicled his legal battle against corporate politics. Kimberly Young lectured on the warning signs of "Internet addiction," and Robert Thurman, a proponent of nonviolence, ended the series with a talk on ways to end violence in the new millennium.

—Karen Zeller