Political scientist Rick Wilson will speak at the John R. Williams Memorial Lecture on Friday, Oct. 28.
Hosted by the Department of Political Science, the lecture “Evidence of Out-group Altruism in the Aftermath of Violence,” will take place at 3:30 p.m. in Business and Economics Room 441.
Wilson is a professor of political science at Rice University and editor of the American Journal of Political Science. His research focuses on human behavior with special interests in evolutionary, biological and neurological foundations of human behavior.
The John R. Williams Memorial Lecture commemorates William’s devotion to his many former students. Williams served WVU as a professor of political science for almost four decades. He joined the faculty as an assistant professor in 1949 and became department chair in 1961.
He was known for challenging generations of students to think critically about political philosophy, the politics of the British Commonwealth of nations and Western European politics. Williams received numerous teaching awards such as the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teacher Award, the Pi Sigma Alpha Outstanding Teacher Award, the WVU Outstanding Teacher award and became one of WVU’s most popular professors.
The John R. Memorial Williams Lecture is made possible by a gift to the Department of Political Science by Thomas and Jean Clark of Morgantown, WV.
