Programs & Events

Vibrant Campus

Augustana is an interesting place to work, full of ideas, arguments and experiences. The greatest source of that intellectual excitement is internal: it flows naturally from the presence of nearly two hundred bright, passionate, engaging scholars. Our modest size and open culture provide a wealth of disciplinary, interdisciplinary and cultural conversations– some in faculty meetings, others over lunch at the Wilson Center – that extend across the years.

Beyond that, the College strives to provide an incredibly rich array of intellectual, artistic and cultural experiences for its students, faculty and community. Over 100,000 people a year visit campus to share in these experiences.

It's impossible to give even a decent summary of the 240 or so sponsored events and visitors on campus in the year ahead. Instead we'll highlight two initiatives: The Convocation Series and The Year of the Book.

The Community Convocation Series

The Community Convocation series convenes weekly. About a decade ago, the faculty concluded that the existing daily schedule – classes began at 8:00 a.m. and ended around 5:00 p.m. with 10 – 15 minutes between them – did not serve our interests well. In particular, it didn't offer time to gather and consider issues of common concern. In response we adopted a new daily schedule which largely eliminated classes from 10:30 – 12:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In their place, we created time to meet, listen and discuss. In the spirit of the 19th century Augustana Lyceum, we’ve used that time to make dozens of lectures and performances available to our students, our staff and our faculty. Distinguished presenters in the Convocation Series have included:

Omid Safi, a professor of religion at UNC and one of the most important voices in contemporary progressive Islam movement.

John Buchtel, curator of rare books at Johns Hopkins University's Sheridan Libraries. Dr. Buchtel made three presentations to kick-off our "Year of the Book" celebration.

Film excerpts from "The Power of Forgiveness." Over the last 20 years forgiveness has come into its own as an area of academic study. Researchers are examining the psychological and physical effects of forgiveness on individuals and within relationships under a wide variety of conditions, ranging from petty insults to sexual assault. The Power of Forgiveness explores this important work and translates it into a popular, accessible 90-minute documentary film.

MinniJean Brown Trickey and Terrence Roberts, two of the group of African-American teenagers known as the "Little Rock Nine." On September 25, 1957, under that gaze of 1,200 armed soldiers and a worldwide audience, they faced down an angry mob and helped to desegregate Central High.

Raymond Cross, a law professor and subject of the book Coyote Warrior: One Man, Three Tribes, and the Trial that Forged a Nation. "Coyote Warrior" recounts the story of how Raymond Cross successfully represented three North Dakota Indian tribes before the Supreme Court in 1986, bringing a settlement of $149.2 million for the unjust taking of their reservation by Congress.

James Kunstler, known for his book, The Long Emergency, about the challenges posed by the coming permanent global oil crisis, climate change, and other "converging catastrophes of the 21st Century."

In almost all of these cases, our visitors will make time for extended small group interactions – at lunch, in classes or over coffee – in addition to their formal public presentations.

Finding more current information

There are two channels which reliably provide extensive, current information about intellectual, artistic and cultural activities here. The Dean of the College publishes a weekly e-newsletter which celebrates faculty activities, highlights upcoming opportunities (for example, conferences and grants), and previews the following week's activities on campus. You can access both current and archived newsletters here.

One of the best sources of cultural insight into the community-as-a-whole is the River Cities' Reader, published by Augustana alum Todd McGreevy. The Reader provides a comprehensive, weekly calendar of events from around the region as well as really solid local news analysis. It's accessible here.

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