Pregame Showcase 2015

Initiated in 1989, the Pregame Showcase is a public lecture series scheduled two hours before each home football game at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The program is hosted by the dean of the college, Theresa Lee, and features thirty-minute presentations by all-star faculty from the College of Arts and Sciences on topics related to their field of expertise. Faculty develop their presentations for a general audience and address timely and interesting topics. Following the formal presentation, faculty speakers field questions from the audience for ten to fifteen minutes. The entire program is carefully timed to forty-five minutes to allow football fans to enjoy the presentation and still have plenty of time to get to their seat in the stadium by kickoff. To add an element of fun to the occasion, a door prize is awarded each week at the conclusion of the program. The winner takes home a bag of gifts provided by UT Athletics.

Following the formal program, guests are invited to stop by the reception area to enjoy complimentary refreshments and visit with the speaker, the dean, and other guests before making their way to the stadium.

The College of Arts and Sciences is UT’s flagship college and the largest, most comprehensive, and most diverse of UT’s eleven colleges, spanning the disciplines of the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and the visual and performing arts. There is an inexhaustible pool of talented faculty from which to choose each year as the Pregame Showcase program roster is developed. The faculty speakers “showcased” each fall are simply representative of the faculty excellence throughout the college.

Alumni who stop by will have a chance to catch up on news about their home department and meet new faculty. Everyone who attends will have an opportunity to learn something new and become better acquainted with the college, its faculty, and their pathbreaking research and creative expression.

Coach Jones has assembled an all-star football team this season and VOL fans are eager to see the team take the field. Before the game each week, we invite fans to stop by the McClung Museum and meet the Pregame Showcase all-star faculty team who excel on the academic gridiron.

We invite VOL fans to make “Pregame Showcase at the McClung” part of their game-day experience.

2015 Schedule

The Pregame Showcase starts two (2) hours before kickoff in the McClung Museum Auditorium and is free and open to the public. A reception for our guests will follow the program.

The Pregame Showcase flyer for 2015 can be downloaded (PDF) here.

Click the speakers name to learn a little more about each speaker and then click the title of their presentation to learn what they will be speaking on.

Date Opponent Faculty Speaker
Sept. 12 Oklahoma Wesley Baldwin
Professor, School of Music
“Home, Away, and Back Home: How the Language of Music Works”
Baldwin
Sept. 19 Western Carolina Margaret Lazarus Dean
Associate Professor, Department of English
“Leaving Orbit: Notes from the Last Days of American Spaceflight”
Dean
Oct. 3 Arkansas Chris Holmlund
Professor, Department of Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures
“Navigating Genre, Tweaking Type: Romance, John Cusack-Style”
Holmlund
Oct. 10 Georgia Jana Morgan
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science
“Venezuela in Crisis: The Deterioration and Polarization of Party Politics
Morgan
Nov. 7 South Carolina David Anderson
Professor, Departments of Anthropology
“Recent Developments in Southeastern Archaeology”
DAnderson
Nov. 14 North Texas
(Homecoming)
Devon Burr
Associate Professor, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
“Searching for Extraterrestrial Rocks in Antarctica”
Burr
Nov. 28 Vanderbilt Ralph Lydic
Professor, Department of Psychology
“The Brain Basis of Sleep Health”
Lydic

Directions

McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture
1327 Circle Park Drive
Knoxville, TN
37996-3200
http://www.utk.edu/maps/

Sponsors

pregame sponsors

Contact

Jeremy Hughes
Digital Communications Manager
College of Arts and Sciences
The University of Tennessee
312 Ayres Hall
Knoxville, TN 37996-1330
(865) 974-5333 or jhughe19@utk.edu