#  Norton Lectures 

 



### About the Norton Lectures 

 

The Charles Eliot Norton Professorship in Poetry was endowed in 1925. Harvard’s preeminent lecture series in the arts and humanities, the Norton Lectures recognize individuals of extraordinary talent who, in addition to their particular expertise, have the gift of wide dissemination and wise expression. The term “poetry” is interpreted in the broadest sense to encompass all poetic expression in language, music, or the fine arts.

Past Norton Professors have included [T.S. Eliot](https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674931503), [Jorge Luis Borges](https://youtu.be/YSLV7t9DvN8), [Leonard Bernstein](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKiz0UZowP2V0mwtNv1lc1_zUSB2O65d7), [Czeslaw Milosz](https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674953833), [John Cage](https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674440081), and [Nadine Gordimer](https://brill.com/view/journals/mata/19/1/article-p234_19.xml?language=en). The 2009-10 Norton Lectures, the first organized under the auspices of the Mahindra Center, were given by Nobel laureate [Orhan Pamuk](https://www.amazon.com/Naive-Sentimental-Novelist-Understanding-International-dp-0307745244/dp/0307745244/ref=mt_other?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=). Since then the Center has hosted [William Kentridge](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtxVM47qfVNCiZGjrzGk68GpwXVCtUVHo), [Herbie Hancock](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtxVM47qfVNCuPUKzbGB15-8vbhaeJAZz), [Toni Morrison](https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674976450), Frederick Wiseman, [Wim Wenders](https://youtu.be/_0nGS_RfONA), [Agnès Varda](https://youtu.be/mQ28D_idbI0), [Laurie Anderson](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtxVM47qfVNCAPdgEesjlfIQX6rptwXDp), and [Viet Thanh Nguyen](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtxVM47qfVNAMrUnIPo5SjdWVPV0fIArh&feature=shared).



 



      ![Viet Thanh Nguyen, in a blue suit, speaking behind a podium with the Mahindra Humanities Center Logo on the front.](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_1_1__480x480/public/2025-01/Norton%20Lectures%20-%20Viet%20Thanh%20Ngu.jpg?h=9d93d637&itok=Qqtz-Gvi) 

 

 

  

 



 

 

 

 

 

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##  Past Events 

 



  [### The Norton Lectures with Steve McQueen: Pulse | Lecture Six: "7th November"

 ](/steve-mcqueen-norton-six?occ_id=0)May 5, 2026

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 6:00PM - 7:30PM EDT 

 

 

   [### The Norton Lectures with Steve McQueen: Pulse | Lecture Five: "Grenfell"

 ](/steve-mcqueen-norton-five?occ_id=0)March 3, 2026

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 6:00PM - 7:30PM EST 

 

 

   [### The Norton Lectures with Steve McQueen: Pulse | Lecture Four: "Occupied City"

 ](/steve-mcqueen-norton-four?occ_id=0)January 28, 2026

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 6:00PM - 7:30PM EST 

 

 

  

 

 [ More past events arrow\_circle\_right ](/calendar/past_events?f%5B0%5D=event_hwp_c_eventseries12%3A169863)