Inspired by the BBC's renowned public radio series The Reith Lectures, Voice of NCCU proudly presents a five-part lecture series to be held live at NCCU's Li Chan Lecture Hall, with recordings subsequently broadcast on Voice of NCCU.
The Reith Lectures have long stood as a landmark of British intellectual life. The inaugural postwar lecture, delivered in 1948 by Bertrand Russell, was the celebrated Authority and the Individual. The 1950s brought Arnold J. Toynbee's The World and the West; the 1970s, Richard Hoggart's Only Connect. Later lectures familiar to Taiwanese readers—several translated into published books—include Edward Said's Representations of the Intellectual in the 1990s, Anthony Giddens's Runaway World in 1999, and, more recently in 2016, Stephen Hawking's Do Black Holes Have No Hair?. Each speaker, in a time of upheaval and uncertainty, used the light of ideas to illuminate the darkness of their age.
Founded in 1963, Voice of NCCU is Taiwan's first licensed academic training radio station to be self-governed by students. Operated under the auspices of NCCU's College of Communication, the station carries both an academic and a public mission.
In an era of media fragmentation and traffic-driven content, we live amid an overwhelming volume of information even as public discourse grows increasingly thin. Independent and reflective ideas often struggle to find a foothold, let alone spark genuine public conversation.
This initiative marks a new endeavor for Voice of NCCU: to give thought a voice over the airwaves. For its inaugural season, the series has invited five of Taiwan's leading public intellectuals, each posing questions to the world and to Taiwan, engaging audiences, and leaving behind a record of thought for our time.
Registration for all sessions is now open. Please register through the university's event registration system or via the link below.