Noam Chomsky visit

A couple of weeks ago, Noam Chomsky, the active and famous intellectual - now over 80 years old, visited the campus. It generated a lot of excitement. Actually I suppose I should say "supremely active": after all, he has published over 100 books and is the most cited scholar in the world still alive.

He gave two free public lectures, a general lecture titled "Education for Whom and for What?", and a more specialized lecture on the topic of "What is Special About Language?"

This was evidently quite an event for Arizona. From outside my office window, I could see long lines of people all afternoon, hours prior to his 7pm general lecture. He filled Centennial Hall (capacity 2500) plus two additional overflow lecture halls.

Arizona Public Media, which runs the local PBS tv and KUAZ radio stations, taped the lectures. Here are the links:

• Education for Whom and for What?
• What is Special About Language?

I was fortunate enough to be able to chat with Noam on two occasions during this visit.

(Picture courtesy of Samantha Wray.)