Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference, (2000), Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2005), and Outliers: The Story of Success (2008) all number one New York Timesbestsellers, will be the debut speaker of the 2010 – 2011 George T. Hunter Lecture Series on October 5, 7 p.m., at the Roland Hayes Concert Hall located inside the Fine Arts Center on the UTC campus.

All lectures in the series are free and open to the public.

Seating is limited and is available on a first-come first-served basis. Overflow rooms with live streaming video of the lecture will be provided in the Dorothy Hackett Ward Theater in the Fine Arts Center, Grote Hall Room 129, the Benwood Auditorium and the Card Auditorium both in the Engineering, Computer Science and Math Building.

The third annual George T. Hunter Lecture Series is sponsored by the Benwood Foundation in partnership with The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the Ochs Center, and CreateHere.

Gladwell will be the arts and culture speaker for this year’s George T. Hunter Lecture Series. The title of his speech is “Overconfidence and the Diseases of Experts.” Following Gladwell’s lecture, he will be speaking to UTC students, CreateHere fellows and other community leaders.

“We are delighted to bring Malcolm Gladwell to Chattanooga and to UTC,” said Corinne Allen, Executive Director of the Benwood Foundation.

“Malcolm Gladwell coming to our University will be an opportunity for students to hear and interact with one of our great modern thinkers.” said Dr. Roger Brown, Chancellor of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. “This is another wonderful example of the partnership that has brought so many national leaders to our city.”

By bringing leading national voices like Malcolm Gladwell and prior speakers such as Doris Kearns Goodwin, David Brooks and Madeleine Albright to Chattanooga, the Benwood Foundation hopes to promote discussion of important issues to our country and the nation.