Department of Sociology

Annual Daniel Patrick O'Connor Memorial Lecture in Social Justice

The Annual Daniel Patrick O'Connor Memorial Lecture exists to promote the principles of scholarship, research, and volunteerism in the service for social justice. The Daniel Patrick O'Connor Memorial Lectureship Endowed Fund is made possible through generous contributions from Margaret O'Connor, Michael and Kathie O'Connor, and their friends.


2007 O'Connor Lecture -- Environmentalist Bill McKibben on "Building the Climate Movement"

September 18th, 2007, 7:30 p.m., Shove Chapel

Bill McKibben, environmentalist, author and scholar in residence at Middlebury College, is the author of many books including "The End of Nature" (the first book for a general audience about climate change) and most recently "Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future," a critique of economic growth and call for a transition to more local-scale enterprise. He founded stepitup07.org, which organized rallies in hundreds of American cities and towns to demand that Congress enact curbs on carbon emissions. Sponsored by the Daniel Patrick O'Connor Memorial Lectureship Endowed Fund and the CC sociology department. September 18th, 2007, 7:30 p.m., Shove Memorial Chapel, 1010 N. Nevada Ave. Free admission.


Past O'Connor Lectures

2006 -- Jim Wallis
2005 -- Thomas Frank
2004 -- Amy Goodman
2003 -- Nancy Folbre
2002 -- Nancy Fraser
2001 -- Kevin Danaher
2000 -- Jay MacLeod
1999 -- Randall Kennedy
1998 -- Jody Kretzmann
1997 -- William Julius Wilson
1996 -- Gary Snyder
1994 -- Vandana Shiva
1993 -- Richard Moore
1992 -- Robert Bullard


Daniel Patrick O'Connor

Dan O'Connor was a student at Colorado College in the fall of 1990 and winter of 1991. A committed social activist, he participated in student campus organizations concerned with environmental issues in ethnic communities as well as other social justice struggles. He participated in the student protests against Battle Mountain Gold's strip mine and cyanide leach mill in the foothills above the Chicano land grant community of San Luis. He also participated in the "alternative spring break" program of the College's Center for Community Service in the San Luis Valley. Dan was committed to workplace democracy, environmental justice, cultural diversity, and social equality.

"I knew that I wanted to change the world at least a little bit.... I didn't believe that any political system could create a good society. 'Change has to come through the heart, not through the mind,' I would say. I wanted to affect people's hearts. I began to paint more and tried to raise my own life to an art form. By this, I mean simply to be as just as possible in my relationships with other people.... I now believe that change can only come through a synthesis of the heart and the mind. I continue to feel an ethical code is necessary to live by, but now I include in this code, political activity.... I am compelled to hit the streets and make my voice heard."

--Daniel Patrick O'Connor, 1991

Department of Sociology, The Colorado College, 14 East Cache la Poudre Street, Colorado Springs, CO 80903.
tel: (719) 389-6820, fax: (719) 227-8219. Email the department.