University Speaker Series

Health and Diseases - Exploring the World of Large Protein Machineries

Henry A. Lardy Distinguished Lecture Series in Chemistry

The Story Approach to a Career: Life After a Liberal Arts Degree

"Career Linguist" Dr. Anna Marie Trester has the answer! She will guide students through the career process using the story approach: how to use your research, critical thinking, and communication skills to identify organizations of interest, how to navigate social media, networking, and interviews, and how to best tell your own story to get that dream job. Free and open to all students! This workshop will benefit anyone with an uncertain career plan.

Plus: Open house with refreshments at 4:30 p.m.! Networking with job recruiters until 8 p.m.! Résumé and social media headshots!

Developing Practically Wise Leaders

Dr. Statler is the Richman Family Director of Business Ethics and Social Impact Programming and a Clinical Associate Professor of Business and Society at the Stern School of Business at New York University. 

Pragmatic American philosopher John Dewey refers to the habit of continually reflecting on and refining our lives as 'practical wisdom'. This presentation will explore how the integration of the humanities with business education can help students to develop practical wisdom that complements their technical skills and enables them to become better leaders.

Trumpexit: Promises and Pitfalls of Applied Sociology and Community Action

91st Anniversary Sociology Symposium Keynote Presentation

The American Denial of Climate Change

Naomi Oreskes is Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University.  She is the author of "The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change," which laid to rest the idea that there was significant disagreement in the scientific community about the reality of global warming and its human causes.

Leading Everyday Resilience Enactment in the Workplace

What are the processes and strategies by which we lead ourselves and others to enact resilience in the workplace? This talk takes a research-to-practice approach to demonstrate how to enact resilience at present and for the future. Strategies rely on core communication of resilience processes and empirical evidence for these approaches.

"There is No Health Without Mental Health: Our Nation in Crisis"

Dr. Mary D. Moller, PhD (hon), DNP, ARNP, PMHCNS-BC, CPRP, FAAN is an advanced registered nurse practitioner who is dually certified as a clinical specialist in adult psychiatric-mental health nursing and a psychiatric rehabilitation practitioner. She is an Associate Professor at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA where she is track coordinator for the psychiatric nurse practitioner Doctor of Nursing Practice program.

The Value of a Liberal Arts Skillset for Our Workforce and Communities

The 2016-2017 Phi Kappa Phi Victor K. Webster Faculty Lectureship will explore how the complex challenges of the 21st century require creative approaches that transcend specialized knowledge and require a liberal arts skillset including communication, critical thinking, problem-solving, and perspective-taking.

Women's Challenges and Opportunities in a Complex Political Situation (Conflicts Zones in Eastern Congo)

The African Student Association (ASA) is inviting Dr. Lee Ann De Reus from the Panzi Foundation, who will talk about their activities in the Congo. Their foundation helps victimized women in a conflict zone in DRC.

The Minneapolis Plan to End Too Big To Fail

Ron Feldman is executive vice president and senior policy advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. He is the senior officer for Supervision, Regulation and Credit. Feldman is also a primary adviser on monetary policy to the Bank president. He helps oversee the Federal Reserve’s monitoring of financial system stability and identification of risks to stability.

Feldman is the co-author of Too Big to Fail: The Hazards of Bank Bailouts, published by the Brookings Institution.

Sponsored by: SDSU Department of Economics.

Walking Forward Research Program: Assessing Cancer Stage and Screening Disparities Among American Indians in South Dakota

Dr. Daniel Petereit developed the NCI-funded Walking Forward (WF) Program in 2002.

"Bone Dry South Dakota: The Failure of Prohibition in a Rural State"

“In 1917 South Dakota adopted a very strict form of alcohol prohibition with a 0.0% tolerance for alcoholic beverages. Americans of that day and ours viewed prohibition as a rurally-supported policy, yet it failed here as it did everywhere else because alcohol was America’s drug of choice.” Speaker - Charles Vollan.

"Learning How to Learn: The Path Less Traveled in Education"

Fourth Annual J.P. Hendrickson Faculty Scholar and Herbert Cheever Jr. Liberal Arts Lecture.

Michael Dianovsky’s lecture focuses on educating and preparing students for the changing pace of today’s world by teaching them how to learn rather than how to conform to the world around them and to conditions that may no longer exist in the future.

Cyanobacterial carboxysome: The beautiful machinery for better photosynthesis

Dr. Cheryl Kerfeld is a worldwide leading scientist working on cyanobacteria. She is currently a Hannah Distinguished Professor of Michigan State University and an Adjunct Professor of UC Berkeley.

Can Global Prosperity Benefit People and Nature?

Ruth DeFries, is Denning Family University Professor at Columbia University based in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology and the Earth Institute and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Recipient of a MacArthur “genius” award, her research addresses how the world’s demands for food and other resources are changing land use throughout the tropics and affecting ecosystem services and human development.

Sung Wokhoyaka "Horse Regalia"

“The use of the horse regalia was a common practice that was utilized for a giveaway in honor or in remembrance of a relative, identification of a warrior society or used for ceremonies such as the horse dance or simply to parade in celebration. Unfortunately over time, this practice has become almost obsolete and unknown by most among the Oceti Sakowin.” - James Star Comes Out, 2016

"Keep Strong, Keep On Your Feet - A Key to Successful Aging" Ethel Austin Martin Distinguished Lecturer

Dr. Martin Runge is a specialist in Geriatrics and Rehabilitation Medicine. He received a degree in Theology from the University of Tubingen and his medical degree from the University of Essen. He has published extensively in the area of muscle and muscle-bone interactions, including authoring textbooks, chapters, and original research articles.

Boy Meets Depression - Griffith Honors Forum Lecture

Kevin Breel is a 22-year-old writer, comedian, and activist for mental health from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Breel's book "Boy Meets Depression" shares his profoundly vulnerable story of being young, male and depressed, exploring what it means to struggle and tell one's story whole-heartedly. This is the Common Read book.

In Canada, People Like You and Me Can Sponsor Syrian Refugees

The lecture will focus on Shulman’s effort to cover the conflict in Syria and the refugee crisis. The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting Campus Consortium is sponsoring her visit and lecture.

Based in New York City, Shulman has reported on immigration, education, food, the environment, poverty, urban policy and other issues in U.S. cities, the Middle East and other parts of the world.

Lessons Learned from Five Decades of Teaching, Research and Service Experience in the Pharmaceutical Sciences

Dr. Ronald Borchardt is the keynote speaker for the 26th Annual Pharmacy Research Presentations and Keo Glidden Smith Convocation. Dr. Borchardt is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at The University of Kansas with more than 500 scientific publications on drug design and drug delivery.

Students from the College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions will get a chance to hear from a professor who spent nearly five decades teaching and researching pharmaceutical chemistry.

28th Annual Consider the Century-Native American Perspectives over the last 100 years

9 a.m. - "Native American Community Policing in Rapid City, South Dakota" by Rich Braunstein, University of South Dakota

10 a.m. - "Racial Disparities in Access to Educational Opportunities in SD" by Weiwei Zhang, State Data Center SDSU

1 p.m. - "Collaborative HealthCare Initiatives & Research in Indian Country" by DenYelle Baete Kenyon, Center for Health - Sanford Research and Heather Larsen, Tribal Education - Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate

My Two Moms: Lessons of Love, Strength, and What Makes a Family

Zach Wahls is the son of two lesbians and an activist for LGBT equality. His journey began after testifying before the Iowa House Judiciary Committee on family and gay marriage.

Pulsed Light Treatment to Enhance Food Safety

Dr. Carmen I. Moraru is an Associate Professor in the Department of Food Science at Cornell University. Her research and teaching interests are in the areas of physical and engineering properties of foods, food/dairy processing and food safety engineering.

Izel Vargas, 2016 Stuart Artist-in-Residence, School of Design

Izel Vargas is a South Florida based artist who hails from the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. He cites his upbringing in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands as playing a vital role in his approach to making art; Vargas’ works are informed by identity, border politics, displacement, and popular culture.

Gene regulatory networks in early endosperm development in maize

Dr. Ramin Yadegari is a professor in the School of Plant Sciences at The University of Arizona and will speak on regulatory mechanisms of seed development in the Life Science Seminar of Agriculture and Biology College.

One Book South Dakota Keynote: Creating a Midwestern Trilogy, Beginning with Some Luck - Jane Smiley in Conversation wtih SDPB's Lori Walsh

Jane Smiley is the author of numerous novels, including A Thousand Acres, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and most recently, The Last Hundred Years trilogy; its opening book, Some Luck, is the 2016 One Book South Dakota.

Good Reads: A Book Critic's Perspective with Michael Dirda, Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic from the Washington Post

Michael Dirda, a Pulitzer Prize-winning book columnist for The Washington Post, is the author, most recently, of Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting, and Living with Books. He has also published the memoir An Open Book and four collections of essays.

New Roles for an Ancient Organelle: Ciliary Defects Cause Cystic Kidney Disease and Structural Birth Defects

Dr. Greg Pazour is an SDSU Biology alum and recipient of the 2015 Lillian Jean Kaplan International Prize for the Advancement in the Understanding of Polycystic Kidney Disease. He is Professor at University of Massachusetts Medical Center.

Film screenings: "Our Own Words" and "Rising Voices: Hótĥaŋiŋpi - Revitalizing the Lakota Language"

Speakers: Jay and Paul Fishback and Delphine Red Shirt

Making Sense of the New Arab Wars

Dr. Marc Lynch is a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University. He is a globally recognized frequently published expert on Middle East affairs and conflict.

"Women Working from Women" - Reception and A Poetry Ekphrasis

Poetry reading by Christine Stewart-Nunez of the poems from her "Woman Working from Women" exhibition. This is scheduled in conjunction with the South Dakota Book Festival.

Sex Ed Boot Camp

Joni Frater and Esther Lastique, best-selling authors, radio hosts and trained sexologists. Funny, sassy and informative, empower students to make better decisions about their sexuality with knowledge and confidence.

Talking Trafficking: Framing People and Forging Policy in the Fight against Human Trafficking

Dr. Karen Vasby Anderson is Professor of Communication Studies at Colorado State University, where she serves as Director of Graduate Studies and teaches courses in rhetoric, political communication, and gender and communication.

Common Read Kickoff

An engaging, interactive introduction to Boy Meets Depression and a discussion on how we can RAISE ourselves and others using the themes of RAISE: Resilience, Awareness, Identity, Support and Expression.