John “Chuck” Chalberg, a Fulbright lecturer who delights audiences with his historical impersonations of American and British characters, will appear in the Buckley Center Auditorium on the University of Portland campus, 5000 N. Willamette Blvd. His presentation, set for 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 8, is free and open to the public.

Chalberg brings significant figures from the past to life through one-man shows that combine showmanship and sound scholarship. He holds a doctorate in American history and teaches at Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minnesota.

Chalberg will be impersonating G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), considered by many the best and most influential writer of the 20th century. Chesterton, known for holding unusual opinions on everything from virtue to pubs, was equally at ease with literary and social criticism, history, politics, economics, philosophy, and theology. His works include The Everlasting Man, which led a young atheist by the name of C.S. Lewis to become a Christian, and an essay published in the Illustrated London News that inspired Mohandas Gandhi to lead a movement to end British colonial rule in India.

The event is sponsored by the Garaventa Center for Catholic Intellectual Life and American Culture. For more information, please contact the Garaventa Center at (503) 943-7702 or at powell@up.edu.