DONALD J. ADAMCHAK DISTINGUISHED LECTURE SERIES IN SOCIOLOGY

This lecture series was established by the sociology graduate student association and by present and former faculty colleagues of the late Professor Adamchak. The purpose of the series is to honor his memory and add intellectual distinction to life at Kansas State University by inviting an outstanding speaker here once a year on or about Adam's birthday at the end of February. The lecture can be in any of the fields in which Adam himself was active.

Lecturers and topics

2008
Elizabeth Lule
Manager, AIDS Campaign Team for Africa, World Bank
The Changing Face of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Africa

2007
Kenneth M. Johnson
Professor of Sociology, Loyola University-Chicago
The Changing Face of Rural America

2006
Thomas C. Frank
Author of "What's the Matter with Kansas?"
Conservative Populism in Theory and Practice
[Co-sponsored by Lou Douglas Lecture Series]

2005
Frances Fox Piven
Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology, CUNY Graduate School and President-Elect of American Sociological Association
The War at Home: Domestic Causes and Consequences of Bush's Militarism
[Lou Douglas Lecture, co-sponsored by Adamchak Series and SASW]

2005
Francis Dodoo
Professor of Sociology and Demography, Pennsylvania State University
Sex, HIV Risk, and Living Poor in African City Ghettos

2004
Cornelia Butler Flora
Curtiss Distinguished Professor of Agriculture and Sociology and Director, North Central Regional Center for Rural Development, Iowa State University
Corn and Capital in Iowa and among the Hopi
[Co-sponsored by Lou Douglas Lecture Series]

2003
Ali Mazrui
Professor and Director, Institute of Global Cultural Studies, SUNY- Binghamton
The African Condition: Today's Problems, Tomorrow's Prospects
[Co-sponsored by University Distinguished Lecturer Series, Lou Douglas Lecture Series, Office of Multicultural Programs]

2002
Karen Stanecki
Chief, Health Studies Branch, International Programs Center, U.S. Census Bureau
Impacts of HIV/AIDS on Populations in Africa

2001
Kevin Kinsella
Chief, Aging Studies Branch, International Programs Center, U.S. Census Bureau
Global Aging Patterns

 

An endowment account, the Donald J. Adamchak Distinguished Lecture Series Fund, has been established at the Kansas State University Foundation, 2323 Anderson Ave, Suite 500 , Manhattan , KS 66502 -2911. Those wishing to contribute should make checks payable to the foundation fund no. F 15153.

 

DONALD J. ADAMCHAK

27 February 1952 – 16 March 2000

Donald J. ‘Adam' Adamchak was born in Bayonne, N.J. , educated in Ohio and Kentucky, and spent 22 years of his professional life at Kansas State University. Adam published prolifically on a wide range of topics related to his interests in demography, Africa and development studies. He had an international reputation as a scholar in the area of aging and intergenerational support; fertility and family planning (particularly focusing on the role of men in decision making); gender relations and status of women; and knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding AIDS and STDs. He also conducted research on the conse­quences of demographic change in rural America.

Among his many awards and fellowships, Dr. Adamchak was a visiting research professor at Georgetown University Center for Population Research in 1986-87. Awarded a Rockefeller Foundation Research Fellowship, he served as a visiting professor in both the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare during 1987 and 1988. As a senior Fulbright scholar, he was a visiting professor in the department of Sociology at the University of Namibia, Windhoek, in 1995. In February, 2000, less than a month before his death from cancer, Adam taught a course on social gerontology in Malta which was sponsored by the United Nations International Institute on Aging.

A gifted and dedicated teacher, Adam prepared scores of sociology graduate students, many of them international, for careers in research and teaching in social demography. He was the first graduate coordinator (director of graduate studies) in Sociology at K-State and was exceptionally active in the graduate program through his formal and informal mentoring of students in addition to his teaching. An active member of 61 MA and PhD committees, he was major professor for 17 masters and 12 doctoral degrees. He kept in touch with his former students and co-authored many publications with them after their graduations.

Professor Adamchak was ever alert to opportunities that would help students' careers. Whether or not he was on a student's committee, he was an invaluable source of career-related information which he was eager to share, helping and encouraging students through their programs and into their careers. His concern for and commitment to his students was all-consuming: in the last week of his life he was still reading theses and coaching students for job interviews. In recognition, the KSU Graduate School awarded him its Distinguished Service Award.