Provost's Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series

Past Lectures

Ray Fanning

"News Literacy--Truth vs. Truthiness"

Associate Professor, Department of Radio-Television

Tuesday, December 3, 2013 at 6:00 p.m.

University Center Theatre (UC 3rd floor)

Kelly Dixon

"Archaeology, Global Change, and the Modern World: Tales from the American West"

Associate Professor, Department of Antharopology

Tuesday, November 19, 2013 at 6:00 p.m.

University Center Theatre (UC 3rd floor)

Jody Pavilack

"From Chilean Coal Miners to Henry A. Wallace: Progressive Visions for the Postwar Era"

Associate Professor, Department of History

Wednesday, October 30, 2013 at 6:00 p.m.

University Center Theatre (UC 3rd floor)

Mark Kayll

"1, 2, 3.14 ... Familiar Figures, Fresh Facts"

Professor, Department of Mathematical Sciences

Tuesday, September 10, 2013 at 6:00 p.m.

Music Recital Hall

Dr. Ashley McKeown

"Skeleton Keys: Unlocking Jamestown's Mysteries with Forensic Osteology and Bioarchaeology"

Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology

Thursday, February 7, 2013 at 6:00 p.m.
University Center Theater (UC 3rd floor)

Dr. Richard Bridges

"From the Test Tube to the Brain, the Serendipitous Nature of Neurochemistry"

Regents Professor and Chair of the Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Wednesday, December 5, 2012 at 6:00 p.m.
University Center Theater (UC 3rd floor)

Dr. Jack Stanford

"Rivers of the North Pacific Rim: Linking Fishing and Science"

Bierman Professor & Director of Flathead Lake Biological Station

Monday, October 22, 2012 at 6:00 p.m.
University Center North Ballroom (UC 3rd floor)

Dr. Charles Nichols

"Composing Human-Computer Interactivity for Musical Performance"

Associate Professor of Composition and Music Technology, School of Music

Tuesday, September 25 , 2012 at 6:00 p.m.
University Center North Ballroom (UC 3rd floor)

Karen Kaufmann

Movement as a Metaphor: Building School Dance Programs

Professor of Dance, School of Theatre and Dance
2011 Recipient of the National Dance Association Scholar/Artist Award

Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 6:00 p.m.
University Center North Ballroom (UC 3rd floor)

Professor Kaufmann has been spearheading dance integration programs in K-12 schools. This lecture/slideshow will address the successes, challenges and life lessons experienced while advocating for dance in education.

Peter H. Koehn

Symmetry, Synergy, and Serendipity: Reflections on Transnationalism

Professor, Department of Political Science
A 2011 Michael P. Malone International Leadership Award

Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 6:00 p.m.
University Center North Ballroom (UC 3rd floor)

In 2007, Dr. Koehn developed the International Research and Development Project Database as the Association of Public and Land Grant University's first faculty fellow and participated in the Africa-U.S. Higher Education Initiative. Over the course of his career, he has taught and conducted research at universities in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Eritrea, Namibia, China, Hong Kong, and Finland. Dr. Koehn has eight published books, 45 chapters in edited volumes, and 57 articles in peer-reviewed journals. His 2010 book, Transnational Competence: Empowering Professional Curricula for Horizon-Rising Challenges, co-authored with James N. Rosenau, is available from Paradigm Publishers.

Dr. Ray Callaway

Darwin versus Kropotkin: Just how 'red in tooth and claw' is nature?

Ecologist and Professor of Biology, Division of Biological Sciences
2011 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Wednesday, December 7, 2011 at 6:00 p.m.
University Center Theater (UC 3rd floor)

Man's views of the natural world derive from both the relentless need to eliminate competitors in order to survive and the equally persistent need to cooperate with others to avoid being eliminated. This conflict is embodied in the contrasting views on evolution promoted by English scientist Charles Darwin, famous for describing nature as ‘red in tooth and claw,’ and Russian nobleman Prince Peter Kropotkin, who is far less famous for his book, Mutual Aid. Professor Callaway’s lecture will explore competition and mutualism in the context of these two historical figures and link these two processes in a modern synthesis of thought about the nature of nature.

Dr. Thomas E. Martin

Live fast and die young or grow slow and die old: What do field studies of breeding birds across the world tell us?

Assistant Unit Leader of USGS Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit

Wednesday, 29 September 2010, 6:00 PM
Todd Continuing Education Building, Rooms 203 and 204

Field studies of breeding birds in Argentina, Venezuela, South Africa, Malaysia, and North America show strong variation in offspring and parental strategies for growth, behavior, and longevity, especially across geographic locations. What are the causes and consequences of this variation across the world?

Dr. Paul G. Lauren

Human Rights in Words, Images, and Sounds

Regents Professor of History

Presented in conjunction with Day of Dialogue

Wednesday, 27 October 2010, 7:00 PM
University Center Theater (3rd floor)

The Day of Dialogue is devoted to the vital subject of human rights, or to the necessity of treating every person with dignity, irrespective of their race, gender, class, ethnicity, ability/disability, religious or political belief, nationality, sexual orientation, or any other form of difference. This lecture will explore how determined and courageous men and women in history and in our contemporary world have struggled to uphold human rights.

Elizabeth A. Lo

Making a Language: A slide show retrospective of the artwork of ceramicist Beth Lo

Professor, School of Art

Wednesday, 10 November 2010, 6:00 PM
University Center Theater (3rd floor)

This lecture will address Professor Lo’s artistic influences of family and cultural heritage, and explore the process of creating visual form.

Greg Pape

Journey-Work: A reading of new and selected poems by Greg Pape

Professor of Creative Writing

Tuesday, 30 November 2010, 6:00 PM
University Center Theater (3rd floor)

Greg Pape is the author of nine books, including Border Crossings, Black Branches, Storm Pattern (all originally published by University of Pittsburgh Press), Sunflower Facing the Sun (winner of the Edwin Ford Piper Prize, now called the Iowa Prize, and published by University of Iowa Press), and American Flamingo (winner of a Crab Orchard Open Competition Award, and published by Southern Illinois University Press). Black Branches was reprinted in the Carnegie Mellon Classic Contemporaries Series. His poems have been published widely in such magazines and literary reviews as The Atlantic, Iowa Review, The New Yorker, Northwest Review, and Poetry. He has received the Discovery/The Nation Award, two National Endowment for the Arts Individual Fellowships, the Pushcart Prize, the Richard Hugo Memorial Poetry Award, and his poems have been featured on NPR and read by Garrison Keillor on The Writers' Almanac. A former director of the Creative Writing Program, he has taught at UM since 1987. Greg also served as Poet Laureate of Montana from 2007 to 2009.

Dr. Jakki J. Mohr

A World Without Marketing: Blessing or Curse?

Regents Professor of Marketing
Jeff & Martha Hamilton Distinguished Faculty Fellow

Thursday, 17 September 2009, 6:00 p.m.
University Center Ballroom

Professor Mohr will explore the many positive and negative roles of marketing in society, from commercializing revolutionary scientific inventions to the minutia of annoying TV ads. In addition, her talk will emphasize the intersection of new technology trends and marketing. Whether you are a scientist, a member of the business community, a student, or a humanities professor, bring your questions, your biases, and your curiosity. What would a world without marketing be like?

Dr. Garon Smith

The Chemistry of Snowflakes, Color and Other Fun Stuff

Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
2008 CASE Montana Professor of the Year
NSF Center for Science & Civic Engagement Leadership Fellow

Wednesday, 14 October 2009, 6:00 p.m.
University Center Ballroom

Did you ever wonder how a snowflake can be so beautifully symmetric but unique from all others? How long have you wrongly thought that the colors of the rainbow were abbreviated by the fictitious ROY G BIV? Do you know what chemical compounds changed the name of New Amsterdam to New York City? Explore these and other fun topics in a celebration of whimsical science.

Dr. L. Scott Mills

Wildlife Biology in a Changing World

Professor of Wildlife Population Ecology
2009 John Simon Guggenheim Fellow

Tuesday, 10 November 2009, 6:00 p.m. University Center Ballroom

What will happen when white snowshoe hares find themselves in a forest without snow? How can we count lynx or leopards even as they move secretly, unseen, through remote mountain passes? What lessons can animals in U.S. National Parks teach us about studying wildlife in a Himalayan country that is leaping into modernization? Dr. L. Scott Mills will describe how modern wildlife biology science combines traditional field work with the latest advances in mathematics and molecular biology to illuminate surprising answers to these and other questions about how animals respond to a changing world.