Unless noted, all lectures are held in Jonas 110 at 4:00 p.m. on Mondays and are free and open to the public.
Craig Christensen: Ethics And the Supreme Court
We have seen much in the media involving the Supreme Court Justices and gifts, trips, speaking fees, book sales etc. Does the Supreme Court need an enforceable ethics code? Should it be the Code of Conduct for United States Judges which binds all federal judges excluding the Supreme Court Justices. Should it be the voluntary Code of Conduct for Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States currently in force? Should the Code be independently enforced? Can it be?
Everyone wants an impartial judge for their case. But what does that mean. If a judge is prone to maximum sentences are they still impartial? What if they strongly favor the 4th Amendment. Does adhering to a particular judicial philosophy affect impartiality? If their spouse has strong political views can they still be impartial? Can a judge register for a political party and vote in a primary?
We will discuss these and what makes the Supreme Court different from every other court. How much control can a different branch of government exert over the Supreme Court? Can Congress force an ethics code on the Court? Can Congress change the number of Justices? Can Congress impose term limits? Should the Court be responsive to Congressional or public opinion
Craig Christensen: The Supreme Court and Realignment
Our media often portrays the Supreme Court as 6 conservative Justices and 3 liberal Justices in perpetual disagreement. But is that really how they vote? We will discuss how they really vote and what are the judicial philosophies that seem to motivate their votes. Which Justice is most often in the majority? How can the Court vote unanimously to put Trump on the ballot, split so disparagingly on presidential immunity and then realign in different disagreement to restrict the federal statutes that can be applied to Trump and others for their January 6 conduct?
We will also discuss the Court's recent rebalancing of our three separate branches of government. The President cannot forgive student loans! The federal agencies will no longer be given automatic mandatory deference in federal courts! Roe v Wade is overturned! Is the Court threatening democracy or assuring its survival? Is the Court interfering with the other two branches or simply requiring them to do their job correctly? We will discuss the Court's recent decisions and how they effect these questions
Dr. Abigail Domagall: Taken for Granite: The Amazing Story Hidden in Our Local Rock
In over 8,000 square miles, the Black Hills hosts a world class display of geology that brings numerous university field camps to the area to study every year. Igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks of this area all hold clues as to how this amazing area formed over more than 2 billion years. In this presentation, I will cover what the rocks tells us about what we used to look like and how this area came to look as it does today, how local tourist attractions like the Vore Buffalo Jump and the Mammoth Site formed, and how these rocks provide local resources.
Dr. Andrey Reznikov: Do we speak Franglais, or why English has so many French* words?
*As well as words from about 100 other languages
Any language, under appropriate circumstances, borrows lexical material from other languages. Some languages borrow more than others and borrow more from some sources than others. English has borrowed massively from French, Latin, and Greek; significantly from Italian, Spanish, German, Danish, and Dutch, and to varying degrees from every other language with which it has come to contact.
Dr. Laura Colmenero-Chilberg: Trick-or-Treating, Jack-o-Lanterns, and Feeding the Dead: How the Ancient Roots of Halloween Connect to Present Day
Halloween! Costumes, trick-or-treating, candy corn, ghosts, and vampires! We are all familiar with our present-day Halloween practices, but where did this spooky holiday originate? In this Geek Speak, we will discover the ancient roots of this favorite holiday and follow its wandering path to present day. Come ready to peak behind the veil of Halloween!
Naomi Jacobson: What your 'Health' says about your Heart
People are constantly being told to be healthy "eat right, exercise, lose weight, take care of yourself, etc." It often times seems impossible to do everything that is recommended to be healthy. This Geek Speak will explore modifiable risk factors for heart disease, learn about realistic changes to improve a person's health and reduce their risk for a cardiac event. This will include developing a personal health goal and explore ways to overcome obstacles.
Katelyn Kelly: The Man, The Myth, The Codes: Decoding myths of the Industrial Working-Class
At the close of the 19th century, the United States was a nation in flux, where the surge of industrialism, the aftermath of reconstruction, and an expanding railway network fostered unprecedented connections across the country. This era demanded a flexible working class, leading to the rise of labor unions, protests, and strikes, all while a quieter yet equally intriguing subculture emerged: hobos & tramps. These transient workers, who traveled by freight trains in search of opportunity, developed a secret language of symbols known as "hobo codes," serving as a covert communication system, sharing vital information about safe havens, dangers, and work prospects. The hobo community encapsulated the complexities of the Gilded Age, reflecting the stark economic inequalities and the spirit of independence & resilience among those navigating a rapidly changing landscape. While their codes and monikers caused fear and fascination for those around them, what did the codes do for the hobo community? What can we learn from this ‘secret society?’
In this Geek Speak we will explore the Hobo subculture, codes and monikers and what they can tell us about one community that was a staple to the United States industrial expansion.
John Van Benthuysen: In The Shadow of Giants: An Assessment of State Building Near Authoritarian Major Powers
Every year around a third of the word’s nearly 200 states are fragile and at risk of failing. The consequences of this crisis can be measured by the record number of displaced people in the world, which is trending upwards and now regularly exceeds 100 million people. State building offers a potential remedy for this crisis, but progress remains elusive despite a vast scholarly literature on the topic and decades of efforts by would be state builders. General theories of state building cast at domestic and systemic levels of analysis are prominent in comparative politics and international relations, but such theories frequently lack efficacy. A different approach to the study of state building is warranted, one more attuned to the regional context of individual states. This study contributes to the state building research effort by adopting a regional level of analysis that highlights neglected place based conditionalities associated with the neighborhood’s states reside in, like the presence of authoritarian major powers. Focusing on regions reveals the previously neglected prominence of emulation, hierarchy, and subversion in the state building process.
2025 Spring lineup coming soon!
2025 Spring lineup coming soon!
2025 Spring lineup coming soon!
2025 Spring lineup coming soon!
Andrey Reznikov: "The History of Writing: from Pictograms to Emoji"
(CANCELED) Laura Colmenero-Chilberg: "Madness in Popular Culture: The 'Insanity' of Women"
Craig Christensen: “The 14th Amendment and the doctrine of incorporation. What do 'privileges and immunities' and 'due process' mean and how do they affect us?”
Craig Christensen: “The 14th amendment and 'equal protection' Who is protected from what and by what standards?
Karl Lehman - "Vincent Figchurch and the Ogre Walrus: Secrets Stolen from a World Champion Oral Storyteller"
Ryan Clark - "You Don't Have Dree Will (and why that's OK)"
Andrey Reznikov - "What Is Language? A Linguist's Explanation of Human, Verbal Communication"
Laura Colmenero Chillberg - "Trick-or-Treating, Jack-o-Lanterns, and Feeding the Dead: How the Ancient Roots of Halloween Connect to Present Day"
Kelly Kirk, Courtney Huse Wika, and Gina Gibson - "Veterans Legacy Program Graphic Novel Academy Exhibit and Artist Q&A"
Michael Baum - "The Art of the Printing Press with Demonstration"
Thomas Weyant - "We Wish You a Sixties Christmas: Politics and Culture in Sixties Christmas Specials"
Lesleigh Owen - "Birth Control, Life Control: A Ridiculously Brief History of Contraception in the US"
Gina Gibson - "Seeking the Unseen: Why an Artist Went a Mile Underground"
Craig Christensen - "THE SUPREME COURT: How It Works"
Craig Christensen - "THE SUPREME COURT: What to Expect"
Parthasarathi Nag and Carrie Gray-Wood - "Maps: Perspectives on Properties and Distortions"
"Sex and Sexual Development"
Holly Downing - "Sex Determination: Amazing Diversity in Biological Systems"
Trenton Ellis - "Hungry Jackets: Exploring Food Insecurity on Campus"
Tim Steckline - "Conspiracy Theory Minus the Smirk: The Structural Analysis of Hustles and Hoodwinks"
Jarrett Moore - “Manufacturing (Real)ity”
Clarissa Thompson - “Mindful Movement: Campus Yoga and Meditation”
Andrey Reznikov - "The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster and His Dictionary"
Aaron Bauerly - "Grey Gaming: The Rise of the Antihero"
Chris Fuchs - "Christopher Landauer and Chris Fuchs: 'Wizard, Fighter, Rogue RPG Design: Community Building Through Gaming"'
Kelly Kirk - "Veterans' Legacies, Veterans' Impact: the 93rd CTD in the Black Hills"
Laura Colmenero-Chilberg - "Trick-or-Treating, Jack-o-Lanterns, and Feeding the Dead: How the Ancient Roots of Halloween Connect to Present Day”
Erica Whitiker - "Hello. Hey! What Up?!?!: The Subtle Art of Code Switching"
Parathasarathi Nag - "A Brief History of Black Holes"
Miro Hacek - "Yugoslavia: Heaven Or Hell on Earth?"
Tim Steckline - "Gates without Walls: An Anarchist’s Appeal for Open Borders"
Du-Lu Hsiao - "Freddie Mercury & Montserrat Caballé: The story behind Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games."
Janette Hettick - “Change is Hard: Explaining, Reframing, and Coping with Life Transitions”
Dan May - “That Song Changed My Life: The BHSU Community Reflects on the Power of Music”
(An Interactive Geek Speak Experience: Bring Your Stories!)
David Berberick - "School music vs. Our music. Why is this a thing and what can we do to change it?"
Nick Drummond - "Hollywood and Politics: Using Movie Scenes & Television Shows to Illustrate a Point"
Jeff Wehrung - “Why We NEED Science Fiction!”
Dan May - “Bridging the Gap: Diversity in the STEM Pipeline”
“East Meets West (River): Creative Readings from BHSU and USD Creative Writing Faculty”
Tim Steckline - “Zoot Suits and the Sailor Riots of 1943: Race Terror in Aztlan”
Kelly Kirk and Carrie Gray-Wood - “A Taste of Place: The History and Geography of Food in Italy”
BHSU Art Faculty - “Beyond the Classroom”
Kelly Kirk - “Honoring Veterans' Legacies”
Andrey Reznikov - “The Role of Bible Translations in Establishing the English Language”
Aaron Bauerly - “You are the Hero: Interaction with Mythic Archetypes Through Games”
Du-Lu Hsiao - “How to be Spanish”
Desy Schoenewies - “Drawings from China: Experiences from the BHSU/Baoding University Partnership BHSU Artists at Baoding University”
Tami Haaland - “An Afternoon of Poetry with Montana's Former Poet Laureate”
Tracy Hunt and Chelsey Groseclose - “The Matrix Within: from Insomnia to Lucidity, the Powers of Sleep and Dreaming”
Altman Studeny, Carrie Gray-Wood, and Tim Steckline - “Twisted Fibers: Felt as Art, Technique, and Social Critique”
David Cremean - “Bruce Springsteen as Storyteller”
Jeffrey Winter - “Secrets and Unconventional uses of Microsoft Office”
Holly Downing - “Why Our Mascot is Not a Bee—The Frustrations of a BHSU Entomologist”
Max Marc - “It's 2019... how 'Blade Runner' predicted Elon Musk, the Simulation, and the coming war with A.I."
Chris Hahn - “We’re All Musicians: Exploring the Brain-Music Relationship”
Petrika Peters - “Global Dumping: What Happens to Your Electronic Waste?”
Alex Lang - “Noise-Makers: Fascists and Music”
University Honors Capstone Defenses:
Carissa Hauck - “Why Black Hills State University Domestic Students Choose Not to Study Abroad"
Madison Jilek - “Utilizing Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy to Detect Trace Impurities for Rare Event Search Detectors"
Kayti Parish - “Purposeful Movement, its Relationship to Kinesthetic Learning, Ways in which it has Already Been Incorporated into the Classroom, and the Full Body Science Project"
Khazayma Khan -“A Revival of Justice: An End to Life Without Parole Sentences for Nonviolent Drug Crimes”
Alexandra Hancock - “Let Them Play: Increasing Time Children Spend Outdoors in Midwest Towns of Fewer Than 15,000 People"
Courtney Dahlgren - “Photoredox Coupling of an Activated Aldehyde and Various Trifluoromethylation Reagents"
Thomas Trimble - “Platinum Group Elements: A Sustainability Paradox"
Bobby Russell - “Teaching a Work of Literature through Its Historical Development: A Unit Plan for William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Its Sources"
Abigail Burnett - “Business Plan for Galusha Solar"
Dakota Becher - "The Pen(is) Mightier than Sealed Lips: An Analysis of Rape Culture Within Young Adult Literature"
Adam Blackler - “Berlin Now: A Portrait of a City after the Wall"
Tim Steckline - “America’s Favorite Carnage: Selling Wilderness Ordeals as Spectacle”
Dan May and Courtney Huse Wika - “Fano-Plane and Di-Graph Poetics: Intersections of Math and Poetry"
Amy Fuqua - “’A Little More than Kin and Less than Kind:’ The Concept of Relation Across Religious and Cultural Traditions"
Jami Stone - “’Trash Has Two Parents: The Person Who Threw It and the Person Who Walked by…:’Thriving in the Age of Accelerations"
Dan Swenson - “Gerrymandering:The Geometry of Redistricting"
Petrika Peters - “Sustainability, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Making the Connection"
Dan May and Laura Colmenero-Chilberg - "Rebel Girl: Celebrating a Century of Exchange Between American Popular Music and Feminism"
Max Marc"Science - ", the Expert Problem, and Mass Hysteria”
Dave Berberick - “From Bach to Braindrill: Exploring the Similarities between Metal and Classical Music and Fandom”
Tim Steckline - "Simulations of History: 8 Second Looks at 4 Iconic Photos"
Colin Garnett - "Weapons of Math Destruction"
Gina Gibson - "I Am the Bone Collector, Now What Do I Do?"
Dan May - "The Joy of SET: Inroads into Combinatorics and Finite Geometry"
Karl Lehman - "Imagining Mythica: Hit-and-Run Game Design for the Bullheaded OR Building Narrative Engines for an ADD world at the Intersection of Math, Myth, Movies, and Money OR Perseverance and Beginner's Mind: The Eye-opening March from Mythica to Walmart"
Andrey Reznikov - "The Meaning of Everything: The Making of the Oxford English Dictionary"
Denice Turner - "Tasting Life Twice: On Life-Writing and Wellbeing"
Du-Lu Hsiao - "Use of Images for Visualization and Visual Literacy in Language Class"
Courtney Huse Wika - "Something Wicked This Way Comes: The History, Myths, and Rituals of Halloween"
Kelly Kirk - "Veteran Legacies in the Black Hills"
Parthasarathi Nag - "Searching for Riemann: A Brief History and Some Recent Insights into One of the Most Intriguing Unsolved Million-dollar Problem in Mathematics"
The University Honors Capstone Defenses:
Katherine Nelson - "Spirituality: The Cornerstone of the Inca Empire"
Katelyn Woten - "Financial Literacy and Delayed Gratification for BeeSweet Farmers in Zambia"
Alissa Iverson - "Evaluating the Clonal Structure of Invasive Ivy through Microsatellite Markers"
Liz Fayer and Joanna Jones - "Metapatterns"
Martin Fashbaugh - "From Blake to the Beatles and Beyond: The Legacy of Romanticism"
Cody Drolc - "Bad Bureaucrats? The Future of Whistleblowing in a Post-Snowden World"
Nikki Dragone - "Advocating for the Protection of Native Women Through Theatrical, Spoken Word and Slam Poetry Performances"
Dan May - "Do-si-dos and Dihedrals: Mathematics and, wait, what...Dance?!?"
Jason Daniels - "Truly Revolution? The Haitian Revolution and its Legacy"
Jeffrey Wehrung - "Who is The Reluctant Celebrity? - Crazy Horse, Korczak Ziolkowski, Chief Henry Standing Bear, or a University and Medical Training Center"
Justin Tremel - "Mathematical Music: Bob Dylan's Extra-Lyrical Artistry"
Erica Whitiker - "Prejudice, Privilege, & Perseverance Through the Lens of Disney's Zootopia"
Adam Blackler - "Stunde Null: The Holocaust and Memory after 1945"
Trenton Ellis - "Panic! At the Meat Department. Food Scares as Moral Panics"
Avi Jain - "Iconography of Desire (And Confusion)"
Tim Steckline - "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Oscar Wilde: The Dialectical Cowboy"
Karin Humar - "BHSU Edge: Creating the Professional Student Development Program"
Parthasarathi Nag - "Supersymmetry, Superstrings and the quest for the Theory Of Everything"
Jace DeCory and Tim Steckline - "Are We All Related? Race and the Embrace of The Other"
David Cremean - "Lawyers, Home Runs, and Money: The Long and Ongoing Corruption of Professional Baseball, America’s Past-its-Time"
Tim Steckline - "999 Mona Lisas in the Age of Digital Reproduction: A Tribute to the Life and Work of Walter Benjamin"
Andrey Reznikov - "I'm Like, Who Needs This Grammar Stuff?"
William Cockrell, Lesleigh Owen, Terri Bruce, and Emilia Flint - "LGBTQ+: Fleshing Out the Acronym"
Hailima Yates - "Recycling Perceptions"
Scott Ahola, Emily Eggebraaten, Amber Wilde, and Shana Monnens - "Dangerous Minds: Banned Books and their Authors"
Lilias Jones Jarding - "Uranium Mining in the Black Hills: An Explosion of Interest"
Trenton Ellis and Dr. Dan May - "All We Are Saying: Social Activism in Music"
Alicia Benz - "In vitro Nanoparticle Cytotoxicity on Buffalo Rat Liver Cells"
Ashley Ruegg - "The Islamic Moorish Influence on the Architecture in the South of Spain"
Trenton Ellis - "The Social Life of Meat"
Dan Swenson - "A Tour of Voting Systems: How do we choose a winner?"
Day May - "God Show Me the Way: Religion and Hip Hop"
Tom Arnold - "Not Just a Cheesy Monster Movie: the Multiple Meanings of Godzilla"
Desy Schoenewies - "Draw Something! A Drawing Workshop"
Amy Fuqua - "Biblically Speaking: Sin and the Role of Women in the Christian New Testament"
Martin Fashbaugh - "Preaching to the Nerves Instead of the Judgment:' The Victorian Sensation Novel,"
Jeffrey Wehrung - "The Narcissistic Doctor? Leadership, Ethics, and Dr. Who"
Nikki Dragone - '"I Was Real Once,' sighed Mr. Holmes: #BelieveinSherlock #FightJohnWatsonsWar,"
Adam Gaffey - "Public Speaking: Raising Hell"
Courtney Huse Wika, Trenton Ellis, Rickie Legleitner, and Laura Colmenero Chilberg - "#BlurredLines: American Raunch Culture"
Ann Porter - "Stuffies, Sex and the Contemporary Counter-Reformation"
Megan Hohn - "So Much More Than 'Just a Game:' A Complete Summer Program Curriculum for School-Aged Children Aligned to Education Standards"
Trenton Ellis and John Alsup - "Perspectives on Hunger"
Nikki Dragone - "Speaking on Behalf of the Natural World’s Rights"
Laura Colmenero Chilberg - "Studying Society through the Apocalyptic Novel: The Road, The Year of the Flood, The Stand, and On the Beach"
Andrey Reznikov - "The Origins of Language"
Tim Steckline - "Outgrowing Optimism"
Byron Hollowed - "Robin Hood Redux: How through Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), CEOs Rob From the Poor and Pay the Rich"
Matthew Bauman - "Now That It's Too Late?: Climate Change and the Anthropocene"
Jace DeCory, Justin Ramsey, Tara Ramsey, and John Dixon - "Ethnobotany and Indigenous Lakota Plants"
Ignatius Cahyanto - "I'll Take You to the Dark Side: Our Fascination with Death and Disasters"
Tim Martinez - "The Man on the Motorcycle: The Revolutionary Thought of Che Guevara"
Adam Gaffey - "Always Contested:The Confederate Flag in the Public Imagination"
Kelly Kirk and Chris Hahn - "All that is Good is Nastier than Ever: Punk vs. Disco: The Defunkification of the Nation"
Kristin N. Prescott - "Just Do It: Sports Participation & Onset of Sexual Behaviors in Adolescents"
Cody A. Drolc - "Cracking the 'Hermeneutically' Sealed Box of Structuralism: A Poststructuralist Reading of Nicos Poulantzas"
Myranda K. Mattke - "Mathematical Instruction: Sometimes Change is Good"
Kim R. Kaufmann - "In the Name of the People: Castro's Revolution in Theory, Practice, and Results"
Lucas C. Fralick - "Harry Truman and the Atomic Bomb: A Complex History and Analysis"
John Ginther - "Don't Hate the Player, Hate the Game"
Aris Karagiorgakis - "The Truth is in Here: Why 12 Million Americans Believe Lizard People Run the Country (and Other “Crazy Conspiracies)"
Dan May - "Love Me I'm Rich: The Rise and Fall of American Alternative Rock"
David Crimean - "Breaking Bad and Inexhaustible Extreme Met(h)aphor"
Pam Wegner - "You Want to Send a Message, Use a Telegram. Theatre, Politics, and the Art of Confrontation"
Will Cockerel - "The Video Game Monologues: An Examination of Gender in a Male Dominated World"
Chris Hahn and Kelly Kirk - "All That Is Good Is STILL Nasty: The Continuing Funkification of the Nation Part I: Funk and Urban Culture in the 1970s"
Tom Arnold - "Butchers, Buffoons, and 'Basterds': Nazis in Popular Culture"
Nicholas Wallerstein - "The Sound (and a Bit of Sense) of Poetry from Ancient Times to the Present"
Desy Schoenewies - "Hands Up Don't Shoot: Boiling Points of Tension in Ferguson, Missouri"
Adam Gaffey - "The Rhetoric of Equality: Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Arguments on Civil Rights"
Rickie Ann Legleitner - "Disruptive Depictions of Disability in South Park"
Tyrone White - "Welcome to the Zombie-Ridden Landscape of the Real: The Walking Dead and the 21st Century Passion for the Real"
Julie Gueswel and Jordan Louks - "The Fall Defense: Revealing Tournament Theory's Motivational Techniques within Hollywood Movies; On Finding Hope"
Robb Campbell - "The Geek Chic"
Adam Gaffey - "Lincoln and Gettysburg From Rhetorical Artistry to National Totem"
Dan May - "For pairs of lips to kiss maybe / Involves no trigonometry : Mathematics and Poetry"
Courtney Huse Wika - "Practical Magic: The Myths and Rituals of Halloween"
Tim Steckline - "The Dark Mouse: The Evils of Disney"
Amy Fuqua - "Why Democracy Needs Good Novels: The Future of Fiction"
Sandra Marker, Cheryl Anagnopoulos, Adam Gaffey, and Nicholas Wallerstein - "WE ARE #RAVENSNATION: Violence in the NFL"
Chris Hahn - "All That is Good is Nasty: The Funkification of the Nation"
Jami Stone - "Happy? The Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment"
Kelly Kirk - "The Super History of America's Superheroes"
Nicole Faas and Kaitlin Schneider - "The Defense: "The Surveillance Industrial Complex: America's Privacy Crisis;" "Distinguishing the Meditative Benefits of Drawing Within and Without Borders on Acute Stress"
Courtney Huse Wika - "This is Gonna Suck: The Vampire in History and Literature"
Gina Gibson - "A Look at Beauty: Bias, Brokenness, and the Pursuit of Truth"
Laura Colmenero-Chilberg - "Children Beware! Stephen King and Evil in Its Many Forms"
Emilia Flint - "My Bloody Valentine: The Psychology of Serial Killers"
David Cremean - "Just a Shadow You're Seeing That He's Chasing: Bob Dylan, Mystic"
Ann Porter - "What Does the Fox Say: The Animal in Art and Society"
"We Wish you a Merry and Terrifying Christmas: Myths, Histories, and Legends of the Holiday"
Desy Schoenewies - "56 Houses Left: Urban Decay and Abandonment"
Sasha Pursley - "Killing the President: JFK and the Conspiracies"
Kelly Kirk - "The Good Death: Death and Dying in the Civil War"
Courtney Huse Wika - "Your Guide to the Apocalypse: The History of Zombies"
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