GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Calvin University’s long-running, award-winning annual lecture series has traditionally been held in auditoriums and overflow rooms, but the university says in a release that the next January Series “moves into living rooms in 2021.”
The 2020 edition of the series had just concluded, and early groundwork was being laid when the coronavirus pandemic hit. For director Kristi Potter everything came to a stop.
The intervening period has led to a re-thinking of how the lectures can be enjoyed by the public but not a change in the quality of the speakers.
“We value our audience and are working to make it as easy as possible for anyone to join from where they are, whether at home, church, in an office, on a couch, or at the kitchen table,” said Potter in the release. “These conversations are so important, and we think by providing easy access to these timely and important conversations, we will reach a record number of people in 2021.”
In the past, the only way to enjoy the lectures remotely was the listen to the them. In 2021, the entire lineup of guests, all presented at the usual time frame (12:30-1:30 p.m. EST weekdays between Jan. 6 and Jan. 26), will be available for viewing remotely on personal devices anywhere.
The January Series lineup remains unchanged in the quality of the speakers: several New York Times’ best-selling authors, two people from Time Magazine’s Most Influential Leaders, and a winner of the Kluge Humanities Prize.
See the lineup of the 2021 January Series
Read how the next January Series developed after the pandemic began
