Join us this Spring for Creative Conversations. Bring your curiosity and join in the conversation about the discovery, creation, and sharing of knowledge! 
Where: Library Reading Room, Main Floor (Wheelchair Accessible)
Cost: Free
All are welcome!
Camellia Freeman, Image Milton Fellow
Thursday, April 28th
3 – 3:50 p.m.
Writing the Body: Form, Politics, and Physicality in the Personal Essay
For the annual Image Milton Fellow Lecture, Camellia Freeman will be discussing the personal essay. The personal essay is at once intimate and public, personal and political. At its center, the subjective “I” acts as the sieve through which everything first passes. While some essayists write from a seemingly disembodied perspective—speaking from an “I” that chooses to ignore its physicality—others are “writing the body.” In this session, we will look to these writers, such as Claudia Rankine, Leslie Jamison, and Jenny Boully, who recognize the importance of locating and examining the body in American culture.
Daniel Castelo,Theology
Thursday, May 5th
3 – 3:50 p.m.
Pentecostalism as a Mystical Tradition.
There are many different accounts of how Pentecostalism can be understood. One theme that has been mentioned repeatedly but not fully developed is that Pentecostalism is similar to mysticism. In a book that will be coming out of Eerdmans in the next year or so, I offer an account of what this identification can mean, its difficulties, and its prospects regarding a general understanding of what Pentecostalism is.”
Rolin Moe, ETM
Thursday, May 12th
12 – 12:50 p.m.
Defining Innovation: A Critical Look at the Language of Educational Progress
One of Merriam-Webster’s most searched words in 2014, innovation was also Advertising Week’s Most Overused Word of 2012. The word is ubiquitous. In today’s parlance, a technology is innovative, a business, a social media practice — but what meaning are people intending to convey when they say something is innovative? How does this meaning match with how the word exists in education, business and beyond?
This discussion will explore a thorough and critical look at the term innovation, its use in society, and the hidden histories of the term and its usage. The discussion is based on a museum installation on the topic shared at the Innovate 2016 conference through MERLOT and the Online Learning Consortium. Innovation predominantly discusses a “forward-moving” good or service; however, there is no consensus nor rubrics or instruments to measure what we mean when we say innovation. Is innovation an attribute of a good or service or is it a psychological trigger for society, used to elicit an emotional response without considering the politics, history or outcomes of its use and adoption? In 2016 that response is triggered to the positive, while historically the response was triggered to the negative.
Robert Baah, Spanish
Thursday, May 19th
3 – 3:50 p.m.
Psalm 58 and the Way of Justice: Perspectives from Father Ernesto Cardenal
When the rich and powerful conspire to deny justice to the poor and needy; when the economic system is set up to exploit the working class; and when the oligarchy uses violence and intimidation to repress the proletariat, who steps in to restore law and order? Priest-poet Ernesto Cardenal of Nicaragua rewrites Psalm 58 and offers a seemingly controversial response for our generation.