To share the excitement of our faculty's teaching and research

To encourage interdisciplinary discussions across campus

To give you the opportunity to meet your colleagues on the faculty

President Bob Kustra invites all faculty and staff to a new brownbag series of presentations. You may bring your own lunch or purchase one from Aramark, who will have brownbag lunches available for purchase for around $5. 

All forums begin at 12:00 Noon and are held in the Lookout Room
in the Student Union Building

RSVP if you plan to attend by email at president@boisestate.edu.

Next Forum:

February 14, 2007
Dr. John Gardner
Our Energy Future: Is the Answer "Blowin' in the Wind?"

Not since the 1970's has the issue of energy usage and generation been so central to our national and local discussions. Rising oil and gas prices, the debate over global climate changes and its causes and the projected rise of the Asian economies cause scientists, policy makers and economists to project various doomsday scenarios for the next 50 years. Central to all of this discussion is the way in which we use and manipulate energy. Dr. Gardner will provide a broad overview of the energy "picture" on a global, national and local scale and will present the fundamentals of wind energy, one of the more promising technologies for renewable energy, including insight into the many controversies surrounding its increasing use.

John Gardner is Professor & Chair of the Mechanical & Biomedical Engineering department at Boise State University. His specialty is modeling and control of complex systems and has published two textbooks in that area. Over his 20 year academic career he has worked in areas as diverse as railroad car dynamics, artificial hearts and robotic dolphins. He is currently director of Boise State's wind energy research program in the College of Engineering and teaches courses in engineering dynamics, mechatronics and control systems.

Previous Forums:

September 27, 2006
Dr. Michael Zirinsky
Between Iraq and a Hard Place: The United States in Iranian History

Dr. Michael Zirinsky is a professor in the Department of History at Boise State and has been teaching here since 1973. He received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina. Since the late 1970s, his primary research area has been Iran's relations with the West. He has presented and published the results of his research in the U.S., Canada, Britain, France and Iran. Dr. Zirinsky's presentation will examine the long history of US-Iranian relations, leading up to the present confrontation, which threatens nuclear war.

March 1, 2006
Dr. Jill K. Gill
What Happened To The Religious Left In America?
Given the powerful presence of the religious right today in American life, it is easy to forget that from the 1920s to the mid 1970s the religious left exercised far more political influence than did the right. So what precipitated this shift? Come and explore with Dr. Jill Gill the historical journey of the religious left as well as the significance of it for the progressive community, the Democratic party, and the nation at large.

Dr. Jill K. Gill is an Associate Professor of History at Boise State University. Her research specialty is the 20th C. religious left in America. She is currently writing a manuscript on the response of the ecumenical movement (i.e. largely Protestant liberal churches) to the Vietnam War.

January 31, 2006
Jeffrey Wilhelm
Reading Don't Fix No Chevys
Jeffrey Wilhelm, an associate professor of English education at Boise State University, will provide an interactive presentation focusing on his studies into the literate lives of boys, both inside and outside of school. Dr. Wilhelm received the David H. Russell Award for Distinguished Research in Education for his studies in this area, which have implications for instructional leaders, teachers, classroom practices and university professors. 

December 7, 2005
Gregory Kaltenecker: Idaho Bird Observatory
Gregory Kaltenecker is Director of the Idaho Bird Observatory and a member of the research faculty in the Department of Biology. The Idaho Bird Observatory was co-founded in 1993 by Kaltenecker, who earned a master's degree in raptor biology at Boise State, and by biology professor Marc Bechard after it was discovered that the Boise Ridge is an important staging area for migrating birds during fall, and is one of only a few known sites in the world where great numbers of diurnal raptors, songbirds, and forest owls concentrate at the same location during fall migration. Gregory will provide an overview of the program, which takes advantage of this outstanding local resource by conducting long-term research, providing training and research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, and by conducting environmental education and outreach within the local community.

October 19, 2005
Steven Olsen-Smith
Poetry from Blubber: Aesthetic Strategies in the Writing of Moby Dick
Steven Olsen-Smith is an associate professor in the Department of English and a member of the faculty since 2000. He earned his doctorate at the University of Delaware and is an expert on Herman Melville. He is currently writing a book on the composition of Moby-Dick, and he is general editor of Melville’s Marginalia Online. Steven will help us understand Melville's effort to create what is surely a unique masterpiece of American literature.