HARRISONBURG, Va. (ROCKTOWN NOW) — Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community announced its 21st annual season of the Shenandoah Valley Lyceum.

This year’s speaker series promises to be riveting and includes topics ranging from our upcoming presidential election to the ethics of gene editing. The Lyceum series runs through fall into early spring.

This year’s lineup includes:

  • Political Expert J. Miles Coleman, associate director of Sabato’s Crystal Ball:  At the University of Virginia, Coleman is renowned for his expertise in analyzing campaigns, scrutinizing detailed election returns, and providing accurate political forecasts. On Friday, Sept. 6, he’ll share a comprehensive overview of the upcoming 2024 presidential election and delve into down-ballot races, including Congressional elections. Coleman will also discuss key trends shaping the American electorate.
  • Marie Engle, mezzo-soprano and doctoral student at Northwestern University and Mary Castello, collaborative pianist at Acadia University: On Friday, Oct. 18, the duo will perform two masterworks of the art song repertoire: Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe (poetry by Heinrich Heine) and Gabriel Faure’s La bonne chanson (poetry by Paul Verlaine). Both song cycles present voice and piano, and word and music as equal partners in the stories they tell.
  • Dr. James C. Peterson, Schumann Professor Emeritus of Ethics at Roanoke College and a faculty member at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine: He has been a research fellow in molecular and clinical genetics on grant from NIH and authored “Changing Human Nature: Ecology, Ethics, Genes, and God.” On Friday, Nov. 1, Peterson will give a first-hand account of how geneticists across the world have been meeting to discern the best use of gene editing for healing and enhancing humans.
  • Dr. Christina Richieri Griffin, Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia Department of English: More than two hundred after their publication, Jane Austen’s famous novels have seeped into the zeitgeist and never left. On Friday, March 21, 2025, Richieri will discuss Jane Austen’s life and works — what we know and don’t know — and how Austen became the cultural touchstone she is today.

All events take place at 7 p.m. in the Detwiler Auditorium at VMRC. Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 at the door. Season tickets are available for $25 (for all four events), and a lifetime pass can be purchased for $100. For more information, call 540-574-3850.