In all the hustle and bustle of college life at Wabash, attending evening lectures can feel like a less-than-ideal addition to one’s schedule. Whether it be for a fourth-hour assignment, extra credit or just plain curiosity, the College’s plethora of extracurricular academic options often pose as simply add-ons to a liberal arts education.
Take this year’s John Charles Lecture on January 30, 2025. For most students, it was simply a chance to learn more about archaeology and the excavations happening at Troy, the legendary setting of Homer’s “The Iliad.” But for me, this lecture was a case study in how attending lectures can build networks and forge community far beyond a PowerPoint presentation.
The Charles Lecture is the largest and most important lecture put on by the Classics department and “meant to host a preeminent ancient historian,” according to Professor of Classics Jeremy Hartnett ’96. This was definitely the case in 2025, because they brought in Professor Brian Rose from the University of Pennsylvania.
Rose is a behemoth in the world of Classics. Gifted the keys to the proverbial Classics kingdom in 1988, Professor Rose was the director of excavations at Troy for 25 years until he switched sites to Gordion (another excavation site in the middle of modern-day Turkey). He has a named professorship at UPenn and is also the curator-in-charge of the Mediterranean Section of the Penn Museum. His list of accolades is endless, highlighted by his reception of the Archaeological Institute of America’s Gold Medal in 2015 the organization’s highest hono given in recognition of his work that has had a lasting impact on the theory and practice of archaeology.
Unlike other such events, the Charles lecturer has several other responsibilities outside of delivering their seminal lecture. Professor Rose engaged with students and faculty in several different capacities, including a dedicated meal to talk with students, lecturing in three different Classics courses and presenting a second talk during the Friday lunch hour.
IT JUST SO HAPPENED that I had the unique opportunity this year to attend almost every single event that Professor Rose was involved in: I attended his student-only lunch, attended two of his class lectures, introduced him at the Charles lecture and listened to his lunch talk the following day.
After attending five events with Professor Rose, it was impossible not to get a sense of his personality and general disposition that he brings to not only being a professor, but as an individual. Despite having been a professor for almost 40 years, Professor Rose carries a youthful energy and exuberance that defies his age. Constantly bright-eyed and smiling, Professor Rose’s excitement to share his knowledge and expertise in the field of archaeology as well as talk with students about it at length meant he fit in exceptionally well at Wabash. From delivering hilarious anecdotes of documentary filming with Megan Fox to describing in detail the difficulties of excavating the ancient past, Professor Rose shared details about his life with openness and a humble, matter-of-fact delivery, endearing him to anyone who listened.
In class, Professor Rose may be one of the most elite lecturers I have had the privilege of listening to. His lecture slides were chock full of images and notes, but he spoke with seasoned confidence and barely glanced at the screen in the hour-long class period. The breadth of topics he broached was astounding. We spoke about ancient architecture, yes, but much of our discussion had to do with reception and how monuments are received, as well as the influences of people who wish to alter history’s perceptions throughout the ages. He held a room of over 40 listeners in rapt silence.
In my conversations with Professor Rose over the course of three days, each experience compounded on the previous, helping us to build a relationship that far surpassed the typical guest lecturer-student relationship. I had learned things from him that I could not read on a university website or from Wikipedia. And, I have faith that if I reached out to Professor Rose later down my career path, he would remember me vividly.
This level of community building and networking is what Wabash students can stand to gain from the College’s lecture series. Besides the vast knowledge these lecturers bring to campus, many times they have connections to the Wabash professors who brought them here; even more likely is that they will be more than happy to entertain questions not only about their lecture topic, but about their field of study as a whole. Investing in these sorts of seemingly mundane, everyday interactions at a lunch talk could end up being a definite pathway to graduate school or finding a job post-graduation.
So, find the silver lining in your fourth-hour assignments and extra credit lectures. There may be more than meets the eye.