The Honors Council Lecture Series is an annual series featuring 12 lectures from Bemidji State University faculty members, providing a platform for them to share their research and creative scholarship.
Our mission is to foster the values of inquiry, connection, sharing and transformation within our Honors program and beyond. These lectures offer a unique opportunity for the Honors community, BSU students and the greater Bemidji community to come together and dive deep into fascinating and complex ideas. It’s a chance to expand your horizons and engage in meaningful discussions.
Spring 2024 Lectures
Six honors lectures will be presented in the Spring 2024 semester. Honors students are expected to attend at least two lectures and write reflections based each experience.
Poetic vs. Computational Intelligence: Poetry’s Place in an AI Landscape
What role will human writer-creators play in a world where AI generated art is cheaper, more quickly produced, and more accessible to consumers? This lecture attempts to answer this question from the perspective of a scholar of contemporary American poetry and a practicing poet.
Lecturer: Dr. Chad Abushanab, Zoom Recording
Date: February 12, 2024 at 6 p.m.
Location: Hagg-Sauer 116
The Language of Tattoo
Exploring two essential truths about tattoo art: it is an interdisciplinary, intersectional humanities that is, at its core, a language.
Lecturer: Dr. Kimberly Baltzer-Jaray, Zoom Recording
Date: February 20, 2024 at 6 p.m.
Location: Hagg-Sauer 116
Traumatized Peoples Traumatize Peoples: Western Dismissal of Indigenous Philosophy
Seeing Western modernity, and the modern view of history, as a response to a series of historical traumas helps illuminate the West’s dismissal of Indigenous thought.
Lecturer: Dr. Daniel Guentchev
Date: March 14, 2024 at 6 p.m.
Location: Hagg-Sauer 116
The Industrial Revolution, The Remarkable Rise in Life Expectancies, and Unintended Consequences
Dr. Paul Kivi will speak on why life expectancies have soared only since 1900 and how this wonderful result also led to most environmental problems, but also how-in geologic time, at least-we are dealing quickly with many of these self-made problems.
Lecturer: Dr. Paul Kivi
Date: March 27, 2024 at 6 p.m.
Location: Hagg-Sauer 116
Vision Guided In-Row Weeding System for Organic Farming in Northern Minnesota
This talk is about examples of organic farming practices and how AI may help it operations.
Lecturer: Dr. Baozhong Tian
Date: April 17, 2024 at 6 p.m.
Location: Hagg-Sauer 116
Human Library as an Experiential Multi-Cultural Learning Opportunity
This lecture examines the Human Library Project as an experiential, multi-cultural learning opportunity for students in social work courses and beyond.
Lecturer: Dr. Brenda Mack, Emily Paine, and Ashley Charwood
Date: April 23, 2024 at 6 p.m.
Location: Hagg-Sauer 116