Born from the love of both science and the humanities and arts that Professors Kashi and Kameshwar Wali both expressed, the “Wali Lecture” has been an annual time to learn together as a community of scholars for the past decade. The speakers have been diverse in topic, field of scholarship, and identity, yet that all united us in learning during their visit to Syracuse University.

For 2024, we would like to continue the work of bringing the community together by launching an open call for proposals to host the lecture. We welcome teams of faculty, staff and students from across the university to submit proposals to bring in a speaker of their choosing. We encourage the teams to be interdisciplinary, bridging traditionally siloed disciplines between the sciences and humanities and arts. Disciplinary speakers are also welcome as long as they are accessible to a broad audience. The lecture is endowed by the Wali Family, and the chosen proposal team will be able to use the funds from the endowment to host the speaker. See below for more information on the requirements for the application.

Past Wali Lecture Speakers

• 2008 – Lynn Margulis
• 2009 – Janna Levin
• 2010 – George Packer
• 2011 – Ian Shipsey
• 2013 (spring) – Arthur Zajonc
• 2013 (fall) – Diane Ackerman
• 2014 – Mark Trodden
• 2015 – Noshir Contractor
• 2016 – Carla Shatz
• 2017 – Priyamvida Natarajan
• 2018 – Frank von Hippel
• 2019 – Robin Kimmerer
• 2020 – none (COVID pandemic)
• 2021 – Krithi Karanth
• 2022 – Kamesh and Kashi Wali memorial
• 2023 – Mary Schmidt Campbell
  
  

Timeline for 2024 Wali Lecture

• Proposals due Friday, March 1 2024
• Team Selected, Monday, April 1 2024
• Wali Lecture Fall semester 2024
  
  

Requirements for proposals to the Wali Lecture 2024

• Team leadership and members including names, affiliations, and status (faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students)
• Proposed speaker (Name, affiliation, expected topic)
• Justification for the speaker and topic (Speaker choice, key accomplishments, rationale for general audience appeal, interdisciplinary elements, why is this person exciting to a broad group of faculty, staff, and students?) 1000 words max
• Budget for event (Speaker honorarium, hotel, transportation, venue on campus)
• Expected funds including co-sponsoring units (departments, programs, and offices)
  
  

Apply

The application is now live.