FRAMINGHAM – Framingham State University is pleased to announce its 2017-18 Arts & Ideas Program, which is focused on the theme of “Duty and Disobedience.”

We invite the community to join us for a number of stimulating, thought-provoking events that delve deeper into the definition of “duty”—to self, to gender identity, to family, to faith, and to race—and how a call to such duty many times clashes with the dictates of societal norms. How does one negotiate the difficult call to action?

The Main series kicks off on September 26 with a lecture from one of the world’s leading Thoreau scholars, Jeffrey S. Cramer, who will lead a discussion on Henry David Thoreau’s famous essay, “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.” It is considered the central text for all discussions that there are higher laws and moral principles to which every citizen of the world is obligated.

Other events will provide the community with an opportunity to meet the founder of an international organization for LGBTIQ Muslims as he discusses being queer and Muslim in the current political climate; hear from one of the creators of the Disobedience Award, which is given to rebels, free thinkers and disrupters for breaking established rules and speaking truth to power; and engage with a photography installation focused on the puzzle of work and family in the context of diversity and change.

The series will wrap up in April with the inaugural speaker in the Olivia A. Davidson Voices of Color Lecture Series, Angie Thomas, bestselling author of The Hate U Give, which addresses political violence, racism and activism through the lens of a teenage girl. The book is in the works to be made into a movie.

Other series in the program include the Midday Performance Series; Mazmanian Gallery exhibits; the Lifelong Learning Series; Public Science Events; and the Authors and Artists Series.

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