Open Lectures
The Associated Students of Lower Columbia College fund educational and informative speakers on a variety of topics.
William Vest Memorial Lectures
The William Vest Memorial Lecture series is funded by the William A. Vest Endowment through the Lower Columbia College Foundation.
Lectures are free and open to staff, students and the public.
Past Lectures
William Vest Memorial Lecture
The Antichrist, Evangelical Political Activism, and the 2012 Election
by Matthew Avery Sutton, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History, Washington State University
Matthew Sutton’s research explores the twentieth-century history of Christian apocalyptic thought in the United States. His talk focused on the ways in which international events including the World Wars and the global economic depression of the 1930s fueled American fundamentalists’ fears of Armageddon. These fears in turn shaped fundamentalists' opposition to Franklin Roosevelt and New Deal liberalism, driving them to the political right. Finally, Sutton suggested that the apocalyptic anxieties that fueled fundamentalist hostility to FDR could play a role in the 2012 election and they help to explain contemporary evangelical opposition to Barack Obama.
Learn more about Matthew Sutton
News Stories:
Author: End-times theology shapes politics
The Daily News, April 27, 2012
WSU professer to discuss religion, politics during LCC's annual Vest Lecture
The Daily News, April 23, 2012
William Vest Memorial Lecture
Honoring the 150th Anniversary of the American Civil War
Dr. Eric Walther, University of Houston History Professor. Dr. Walther teaches U.S. history at the University of Houston, specializing in the Antebellum South and the coming of the Civil War. He is the author of three books, as well as numerous article and book reviews.
News Story: Portland author to be featured at Northwest Voices, The Daily News, May 5, 2011
William Vest Memorial Lecture
Author James W. Loewen, Harvard University sociologist, professor of race relations at the University of Vermont, and best-selling author of Lies My Teacher Told Me, Lies Across America and Sundown Towns.
News Story: LCC lecturer examines racial misperceptions in American, The Daily News, May 21, 2010