Thomas P. Johnson Distinguished Visiting Scholars & Artists Program
The Thomas P. Johnson Distinguished Visiting Scholars & Artists Program has brought experts and leaders, across a variety of disciplines and fields, to engage in public forums and interact with students, faculty, staff, and other members of the community for over 25 years.
For information, please contact Zach Mendez.
2025-2026 Schedule
- The Department of Music (in collaboration with the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park) brings several world-renowned performing artists to campus throughout the 2025-2026 academic year.
Fall 2025
- The Department of Critical Media & Cultural Studies brings in-person and virtual options for the Rollins and the local community to experience The Global Peace Film Festival from September 16th-21st, 2025.
- The Department of History welcomes Dr. Bill North (Carleton College) to campus to give a public lecture in conjunction with the Phi Alpha Theta historical honor society initiation and to guest-teach classes in medieval history. These events expose our students to new and different types of historical thinking and scholarship. The lecture explores the idea of ‘institutional orthodoxy’ in medieval religious institutions, including churches, monasteries, and the papacy. We usually talk about medieval institutions as being unitary actors and following the positions of their leaders. To some extent, this is accurate. At the same time, this can oversimplify what were, in fact, much more complex and dynamic relationships inside institutions between structures, words and ideas, resources, people, and circumstances. Through discussion of examples from the late 11th and 12th centuries, this talk will explore the varieties of institutional complexity that historians may face and offer some suggestions about how we can better capture the lives of institutions and those who inhabit them. The lecture takes place Monday, Oct. 20th, @5:30-6:30PM in Faculty Club.
- The Wellness Center is proud to present Talk with Koiya: College Edition. Talk with Koiya: College Edition is a twofold, dynamic event designed to engage college communities in honest, stigma-free conversations about HIV, sexual health, and wellness. This event will feature both a live, in-person experience and a recorded segment that will be shared on social media platforms to expand reach beyond the campus audience and engage wider communities. The program objectives are to educate students and faculty on HIV prevention, testing, and care through open dialogue, promote health equity and reduce stigma through culturally relevant, peer-informed discussion and expand public health messaging through podcast and social media outreach. Join us Monday, October 27th @4pm-6pm in KWR Galloway Room.
- The Department of Theatre and Dance welcomes artists to support Let the People Sing, an original work crafted by Rollins student playwrights centering Eatonville’s own Zora Neale Hurston and a performance at Rollins 1933. Based in Los Angeles, director Elizabeth Bell-Haynes brings extensive experience devising and presenting new works rooted in ethnographic research, helming projects at renowned theatres across a forty-year dynamic career. Set designer Ed Haynes’ scenic artistry career has intersected with academic, regional, off-Broadway, and international theatre venues, and some of the most impactful producers and brands of the 20th and 21st century. Orlando-based choreographer Arius West is in demand across our region, bringing his unique brand of movement-based storytelling to Orlando Family Stage, The Renaissance Theatre, SeaWorld, Disney, the Orlando Magic, and the Dr. Phillips Center. Let the People Sing will be presented at the Annie Russell Theatre from November 13 to 16.
- The Rollins Museum of Art welcomes Dr. Wendy Hitchmough for a public lecture presented in conjunction with Portrait of a Movement: A New Approach to the Bloomsbury Group. Delivered in person and livestreamed, the talk will introduce new scholarship on works in the RMA collection by Vanessa Bell and Roger Fry, positioning Bell as a central figure in the development of modernism. A Q&A with attendees will follow. This event is free and open to the public. Based in the UK, Dr. Hitchmough is emeritus senior lecturer at the University of Sussex and served for over a decade as curator at Charleston, the modernist home and studio of painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. She later led Historic Buildings & Research at Historic Royal Palaces and is author of The Bloomsbury Look (2020) and Vanessa Bell: The Life and Art of a Bloomsbury Radical (2025). The lecture takes place Tuesday, November 18, 6 p.m. at the Rollins Museum of Art.
Spring 2026
- The Department of Environmental Studies will host a film screening of the new documentary ‘River of Grass’ followed by a panel discussion with the film director, Sasha Wortzel; Betty Osceola of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians; Friends of the Everglades Executive Director Eve Samples; and Pulitzer Prize winning author Jack Davis. The event will mark the film’s Orlando premier and will take place in Bush Auditorium on Thursday, January 22nd, 2026 @6pm. As a follow up to the film, we will host another discussion on Everglades art and advocacy on Tuesday, February 10th, 2026 @6pm with artists Samuel Tommie and Sister Robin Haines Merrill at Mary Jean Plaza. These events will be part of a four-part series that explores the human-nature connections in Florida ecosystems.
- The Department of Political Science will host Dr. Marshall Shepherd, Atmospheric Scientist, Professor, Scholar, TV personality, Forbes Contributor, and Host of The Weather Geeks Podcast. Dr. Shepherd will explore public science literacy, social media and engagement in a post-Covid world. Using the lens of climate, he will explore what shapes perception, biases and sciences literacy. He brings decades of experience to the topic as a NASA scientist, University of Georgia Professor, Forbes Contributor and the host of the Weather Channel's Weather Geeks. Please join us on Tuesday, February, 24th @7pm in the Crummer/Truist Auditorium.
- The Department of Anthropology will host Dr. Agustín Fuentes, a prominent biological anthropologist and professor at Princeton University. He brings together anthropology, biology, and psychology to challenge widespread myths about evolution, race, gender, sex, aggression, and human behavior. Dr. Fuentes will highlight his recent book, Sex Is a Spectrum: The Biological Limits of the Binary, and he will cover the evolution and biology of sex, and challenge popular but harmful views on sex and gender. Please join us on Thursday, February 26th at 5pm in the Bush Auditorium.
- The Student Center for Community & Connections presents Matika Wilbur (Swinomish and Tulalip), one of the nation’s leading photographers in the Pacific Northwest. Matika’s Project 562 reclaims the narrative of Indigenous folks and imagines a modern world that doesn’t erase its Indigenous intelligence, but one that is illuminated by their stories, lands, and living cultures. Monday, March 2nd, 2026 @ 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM, KWR Galloway Room Lunch will be provided!
- The Rollins Museum of Art welcomes interdisciplinary artist Saúl Hernández-Vargas, for a public artist talk presented in conjunction with the exhibition Souvenir. Recently, he has exhibited and performed in the Houston Climate Justice Museum, the Contemporary Art Museum of Houston, the Blaffer Art Museum (Houston) , and the Lawndale Art Center (Houston). He was an artist in residence at the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands (Arizona State University), and the Dust Program (Marfa). His work has been discussed in The Tyranny of Common Sense by Irmgard Emmelhainz (Sunny Press, 2021). In 2020, he developed Afilada Radio and co-curated No hay lengua humana que—a series of radio interventions for independent radio projects in Mexico. His first book, Te preparé humo, was published in 2019 (UNAM, Mexico). He co-founded the publishing project Sur+. Hernández-Vargas holds an MFA in Visual Arts from the University of California, San Diego and an Interdisciplinary PhD from the University of Houston. Currently he is a Core Fellow at the Museum of Fine Arts of Houston. Hernández-Vargas will speak on his artwork in the exhibition Souvenir and in the broader context of his practice as a contemporary artist, addressing themes of displacement, heritage, and place across multiple media. The artist talk will be presented on March 3rd at 6pm at the Rollins Museum of Art. It will also be livestreamed.
- Hosted by the Olin Library and the Rollins Wellness Integration Team, please join Dr. Terrell Strayhorn, Thomas P. Johnson Distinguished Visiting Scholar, for a series of campus events on Wednesday, March 4th, exploring how fostering belonging and connection directly supports student success and wellbeing. These sessions offer practical insights for educators, staff, and student leaders who shape inclusive, thriving campus communities.
- The Department of Theatre and Dance welcomes artists to support Anastasia: The Musical, an engaging new work of historical fiction set to an enchanting score. Music director Jason Bailey is in demand across Central Florida and beyond: the University of Central Florida, the Renaissance Theatre, the Dr. Phillips Center, Orlando Family Stage, Oregon Children’s Theatre, Missoula Children’s Theatre, and American Family Theatre. Bailey has arranged and orchestrated new musicals, including From Here and Flying Lessons, both of which had recent stints off-Broadway. Choreographer Adonus Mabry has performed and and choreographed with Tokyo Disney, Viking Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Disney World, Universal Studios, Creative City Project, Modern Theatrics, Renaissance Theatre, and the Crawford Jazz Project. Anastasia: The Musical will be presented at the Annie Russell Theatre from April 16 to 19.
Apply
Have a scholar and/or artist in mind for the next academic year? Submit your application by TBD (more to come) for the TPJ Committee's consideration.
Apply Here