The faculty of the Department of Religious Studies established the Witherspoon Lectures in 1984 to honor their colleague Loy H. Witherspoon, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Religious Studies, for his twenty years of distinguished service at UNC Charlotte. It is the oldest and most prestigious endowed lecture series at UNC Charlotte. Dr. Witherspoon had continued to teach each semester as Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Religion in the Department of Religious Studies. Hundreds of his friends and colleagues contributed to the fund that made this the first named, endowed lecture series at UNC Charlotte. Lectures have been published each year through a gift from Dr. William Pfischner.
Program for a lecture delivered by Robert A. Orsi at McKnight Hall on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte on March 25, 2014. Lecture title: Secrets of the confessional : children, the sacrament of penance, and the making of 20th century U.S. Catholicism.
Program for a lecture delivered by Winnifred Fallers Sullivan at McKnight Hall on the University of North Carolina at Charlotte campus on April 2, 2015. Lecture title: The impossibility of religious freedom.