Academics

Monday, April 28 | 4-6 p.m. (doors open at 3:30 p.m.)
Fox Cities Stadium

The Pitch is a startup business pitch competition among college student teams in Northeast Wisconsin. Competing teams have advanced from their campus competitions and have the opportunity to win cash and in-kind services to further their entrepreneurial pursuits.

Representing Lawrence this year are:

• Emma Perry and Sheldon Watson, both junior business and entrepreneurship majors, will pitch Community and Beyond, an app designed to track volunteer hours. They are joined on the team by Ben Gutowski, a fellow junior business and entrepreneurship major.
• Faith Onukaogu, a senior majoring in business and entrepreneurship and global studies, will pitch Anima Unita (AU), a multi-purpose clothing brand.

Participating schools include:

• Lawrence University
• St. Norbert College
• UW-Green Bay
• UW-Oshkosh
• UW-Stevens Point

The Pitch is open to all!

Thursday, May 1 | 4:30 p.m.
Wriston Art Galleries

An active scholar and instructor, Professor Gustavo Fares has taught in the Spanish Department at Lawrence since 2000, and he also has a vigorous visual art practice. He will discuss his current exhibition, Abstract-Organic, on view in the Wriston Art Galleries through May 17.

According to the artist, “The Abstract Organic series appeals to nature in the ways in which the works are made as well as in the images they present. The images are built around “indexical images,” that is, images constructed with the impression on the painting’s surface of real objects, which in this case are tree branches.

Thursday, April 17 | 7 p.m.
Coffee Wizardz | 800 S Lawe St, Appleton

Marcia Bjornerud (geology) and Austin Segrest (English) will be reading from their new books, Turning to Stone and Groom, respectively.

Their new memoirs will take readers on journeys through their respective fields, geology and poetry. An animate earth, a survival—Marcia Bjornerud’s Turning to Stone and Austin Segrest’s Groom articulate the emergence of new understandings of the relationships and environments that shape us.

RESCHEDULED FOR
Thursday, May 29 | 4:30 p.m.
Main Hall 201

You may have heard about the $500,000 Mellon grant recently awarded to support collaboration between LU colleagues and the College of the Menominee Nation. This event will give us a chance to learn more about the work and the thinking that led to the grant. It should also give us a chance to talk about one of the main concerns of the grant: issues of environmental justice and sustainability.

Presenters will include Greg Hitch (Environmental Studies), Claire Kervin (English), and Sigma Colon (Environmental Studies and Ethnic Studies). All are welcome, so please join us!

Thursday, April 10 | 4:30 p.m.
Wriston Art Galleries

Join us for a gallery walk of the exhibition Beyond Tomorrow: An Artist’s Quest in the Last Decade with the artist, Jiayi Young ’94 (physics and studio art major).

This exhibition offers an insight into the creative journey behind two major projects Young completed over the past decade. The first is a three-phase effort aimed at democratizing social media data. The second is a public artwork that explores a moon rock brought back by Apollo 12 in 1969. The piece presents an enigmatic object—ice that never melts—serving as a metaphor for the paradox of humanity’s insatiable pursuit of resources and technological progress, even at the risk of self-destruction.

During the walk, visitors will also have the opportunity to engage with interactive computer programs, handle physical objects, ask questions, and discuss the projects with the artist. 

Reception with refreshments to follow!

Wednesday, April 9 | 4:30-6 p.m.
Steitz 102

Lawrence will welcome psychology guest speaker Professor Heather Kirkorian, Laura M. Second Chair in Early Childhood Development & Department Chair and Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at UW-Madison.

Prof. Kirkorian’s talk will synthesize research on digital media and early child development. She will share research highlights regarding early cognitive development and screen time, including when young children do (and do not) learn from digital media. She will also examine the larger family media ecology using the Dynamic, Relational, and Ecological Approach to Media Effects Research (DREAMER) framework. The DREAMER framework emphasizes the regulatory and relational processes that shape how young children and families use and respond to media, balancing the needs of different family members. Prof. Kirkorian will use examples from her own and others’ research to illustrate how different types of media use predict different short- and long-term outcomes. Prof. Kirkorian will conclude with examples of how to translate these research findings into practical advice to support digital well-being for families with young children.