Request a Speaker

Speaker Details Eric P. Anderson   A History of the American Indian Boarding Schools This presentation examines the thinking behind the creation of federal schools for American Indian children and how this affected Native communities in the short and long term. Speaker Details Lisa LaRue Baker   Developing a Land Acknowledgement Taking the first step to creating a Land Acknowledgement can be daunting and mysterious. This program is meant to provide organizations, institutions and groups with a roadmap to creating a sincere land acknowledgement. Speaker Details Prisca Barnes   The Dockum Drugstore Sit-in In July 1958, Black students gathered at downtown Wichita's Dockum Drugstore to stage a peaceful protest against the unequal practice of segregation. What happened during the three-week sit-in? Speaker Details Angela Bates   Children of the Promised Land Nicodemus, a small unincorporated town in Graham County, is the only remaining western town that was established by African Americans during the Reconstruction Period following the Civil War. Speaker Details Dr. Debra Bolton   Strangers in Town – Film Discussion* Strangers in Town tells the story of how global migration transformed and enriched Garden City, Kansas. Speaker Details Rex Buchanan   Petroglyphs of the Kansas Smoky Hills For centuries before European arrival, Native people lived on the plains, and some left behind rock carvings on soft sandstone in the middle of the state.  Speaker Details Beverley Olson Buller   William Allen White and the KKK In Kansas The tumultuous 1924 Kansas Gubernatorial campaign was the time William Allen White chased the Ku Klux Klan out of Kansas. Speaker Details John Burchill   People, Places, and Politics in 1800s Kansas Pioneer James R. Mead was a man of his times, and is now considered one of Wichita's founding fathers. What can be learned from Mead's influence on the state's early development? Speaker Details Patricia Cecil   Faith and Camp Funston Camp Funston, located at Fort Riley near Junction City, was the largest divisional training camp during WWI. This presentation explores the way in which servicemen experienced and expressed faith in the camp as they prepared for war overseas. Speaker Details Dr. Michaeline Chance-Reay   The Harvey Girls: Women's Roles in Railroads, Kansas, and US History The Harvey Girls played a role in the economy and cultural history of Kansas and the American Southwest. This talk includes stories of women employed by the Fred Harvey Company as well as its founder, and their role in Kansas and the western US. Speaker Details Gene Chávez   Flour Power During the period of the Mexican Revolution, many immigrants made their way to Kansas to raise their families and work in the railroad, agricultural, industrial, and hospitality sectors of the state. Speaker Details Gene Chávez   El Poder De La Harina ​Durante el periodo de la Revolución Mexicana, muchos inmigrantes llegaron a Kansas para establecer a sus familias y trabajar en el ferrocarril, agricultura, industria y sector hospitalario del estado. Speaker Details Celia Daniels   You've Got Mail: Exploring Letter-Writing Through Time At one time, daily letter-writing bound us together. Today, ubiquitous emails, texts, and social media messages challenge this time-honored tradition. Speaker Details Marla Day   Dress for Success: Nelly Don and American Fashion You can't mention 20th-century women's fashion without thinking of Nelly Don. Ellen "Nell" Quinlan Donnelly's story is one of innovation, triumph, and hard work-- all rooted in her small-town Kansas upbringing. Speaker Details Marla Day   Waste Not, Want Not: Reimagining Fashion through Thrift Style Thrifting and upcycling are not new concepts. The practice of reusing empty feed sacks, flour sacks, and sugar sacks as raw material for clothing was popular during the austere decades of the 1920s through the 1940s. Speaker Details Ann Dean   Learning from Gordon Parks Born in Fort Scott, Kansas, African American author, photographer, and filmmaker Gordon parks was well known for his documentation of American life and culture. Speaker Details Ann Dean   The Power of Imagery and the Civil Rights Experience This presentation will delve into the impact of photography on the civil rights movement in the aftermath of the landmark Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education. Speaker Details Virgil Dean   "We, The People of Kansas..." The Story of Kansas's Founding Documents, 1820-2020 A nation or state's founding documents speak to the values and aspirations of its people, and at a functional level, provide the functions of government. For Kansas, this is the 1859 Wyandotte Constitution. Speaker Details Phil Dixon   The Kansas City Monarchs and America's National Pastime The history of Negro League baseball in America mirrors the racial strife experienced by African Americans in society. This talk sheds new light on this sports history and the history of baseball in Kansas. Speaker Details Derrick Doty   Kansas Music History What is it like to be a musician from Kansas and what can their music tell us about time and place? Using music and storytelling, this presentation explores informal music traditions, styles, and musicians from Territorial Kansas. Speaker Details Dennis Etzel Jr   Poets of Kansas Kansas has a rich history of wonderful poets, and this presentation will explore and present the work of eight pioneers who roamed the wheat fields, tall grass, and landscape of the Sunflower State, fashioning words into moving stanzas. Speaker Details José Faus   They Changed My Name This presentation brings together the dynamics of immigration told through the lens of visual art and poetry. Speaker Details José Faus   Cambiaron Mi Nombre Speaker Details Chris Glasgow   The Wizard Behind Oz Where's Dorothy? You're not in Kansas anymore! I'm melting! If you're from Kansas you've surely encountered plenty of Wizard of Oz jokes and quips, but you may not know the fascinating story behind L. Frank Baum's classic. Speaker Details Miguel González-Abellás   A New View of Kansas in Spanish Language Literature A different view of Kansas and the people who inhabit it emerges in literary works from Cuban, Mexican, Colombian, and Spanish authors. Speaker Details Laura Hartley   Women Who Made a Difference: The Story of M. Madeline Southard Stories of strong Kansas women are inspiring, and M. Madeline Southard's tale is no exception. This talk will unpack the impact her Kansas upbringing had on her unconventional career as a reverend and her work for equal rights in liturgical life. Speaker Details Will Haynes   The Civil War in Kansas For Kansans, the violent guerrilla warfare between proslavery and antislavery forces known as Bleeding Kansas foreshadowed the national Civil War to come. Explore the story of Kansas during the Civil War and how it helped shape the state's image. Speaker Details Kara Heitz   A New Deal for Public Art in the Free State Between 1934 and 1943, the U.S. Treasury Department commissioned over 1,600 pieces of public art for newly constructed post office buildings across the United States. What can these public works about us about Kansas identity? Speaker Details Cindy Higgins   Fresh Produce: Kansas's Orchardists, Market Growers, and Truck Farmers In Kansas, agriculture is king. This talk highlights Kansas’s commercial specialty crops, agriculture experimentation, horticultural “royalty” marketing, and the evolving local foods movement. Speaker Details Priscilla Howe   One Potato, Two Potato: Campfire Tales and Children's Folklore in Kansas and Beyond Ever wonder about the history behind some of our favorite childhood rhymes and stories? Explore how this intangible cultural heritage gets passed down through generations. Speaker Details Jim Hoy   Kansas Legends and Folktales Grasshoppers so big that cowboys can ride them to herd cattle. Summers so hot that corn pops in the field. Kansas is a place of big skies and tall tales. Speaker Details Megan Kaminski   Listening to Place: Nature and Poetry Walks This beginner-friendly nature and poetry walk will be oriented to connecting with the more-than-human world through literature in the environmental humanities. Speaker Details Katie Keckeisen   Beyond the Veil: A History of Spiritualism It seems one of the eternal questions that has plagued humanity centers around what happens to us when we die. Most modern religions try to tackle this question, but no did so with more fervor that modern Spiritualism. Speaker Details Linda O'Nelio Knoll   Army of Amazons: Women's Fight for Labor Rights in Kansas Coalfields In December 1921, thousands of women in southeast Kansas, christened the "Amazon Army," rose up to fight injustice in the area coalfields. This talk will share their stories and their fight for democracy and labor rights in Kansas' coalfields. Speaker Details Mary Kohn   You Say Tomato, I Say Tomahto: Evolution of Language in Kansas This talk will examine the ways language has changed in Kansas over the past hundred years through the examination of archival and contemporary oral history. Speaker Details Dave Loewenstein   If These Walls Could Talk Murals seem to be nearly everywhere in Kansas towns both big and small. This talk will explore the artists, meanings, and impetus behind the state’s rich collection of public murals, and how they reflect an image of who we are as Kansans.  Speaker Details Isaias McCaffery   Last Stand at Rebel Creek: The Osage as Union Allies in Civil War Kansas As conflicts between states increased during the Civil War, both the Union and the Confederacy tried to use the Osage to achieve their own aims. This presentation explores the Osage contributions to the Union cause in Kansas during the Civil War.  Speaker Details Valerie Mendoza   Beyond Brown: Mexican Struggles for Equality Before and After Brown V. Board This presentation looks at the ways the Latino communities banded together to fight discrimination and demand equal protection under the law, focusing special attention on Kansas examples.  Speaker Details Ayako Mizumura   Voices of Japanese "War Brides" in Postwar Kansas Japanese women fled the devastation of a war-torn Japan after World War II to find challenges in a strange, new world. After marrying US military men and moving to the US, these women often faced challenges and hardship while others found success. Speaker Details Ray Mizumura-Pence   The Disability Rights Movement In the 1960s, people with disabilities and their allies fought to ensure full citizenship and civil rights to a population often overlooked or approached with pity. Speaker Details Erika Nelson   What a Ride! Rural Community-Owned Carnivals Across Kansas, late summer brings county fair season and all the fun that goes along with it. But what happens when the carnival stops coming? Speaker Details Leo E. Oliva   Railroaded: The Industry That Shaped Kansas This presentation examines the complicated legacy of railroads and the impact on native peoples who called Kansas home.  Speaker Details Donna Rae Pearson   Mapping Inequality This presentation explores the history of redlining and its lingering impact on today’s communities. Speaker Details Donna Rae Pearson   The Women of Brown Twelve Black women were at the forefront of the civil rights movement as plaintiffs in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case. This presentation will shine a light on their stories. Speaker Details Thomas Prasch   World's Fair Remnants in Kansas This talk will share the history and significance of international exhibitions worldwide and focus on the wonders held today in the towns of Lawrence, Lindsborg, and Wamego.  Speaker Details Murl Riedel   A New Generation of Veterans: Stories From Iraq and Afghanistan Soldiers from Kansas were some of the first deployed to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. They returned again and again, yet their stories remain largely untold. Speaker Details Murl Riedel   Architecture of the People's Houses ​Kansas has 105 county courthouses and hundreds of city halls, plus a few more state capitals than you might expect. The designs of these buildings tell us about the evolution of local government in the state. Speaker Details Eric Sexton   Remembering Brown v Board of Education This presentation will explore the intricacies of the five cases included in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka and explore the transformative impact of this landmark decision. Speaker Details Lem Sheppard   African American Musicians in Kansas 1860-1920 African American musicians from 1860-1920 are often part of an under-told story in Kansas history. Speaker Details Kim Stanley   A Creative Guide to Writing Your Family's Stories We all love discovering a fantastic tale of our family’s past—whether it be the distant relative who journeyed on the Mayflower or the grandmother riveted airplanes at a World War II factory. But how do we share these stories in engaging ways? Speaker Details Diana Staresinic-Deane   Researching Your Home and the People Who Lived There Researching a property -- whether an old home, a new business, or a section of pastureland -- can do more than tell us the history of a space; it can also help us build a human connection to the people who came before us and their experiences. Speaker Details Anita Tebbe   US Presidential Libraries and Museums US Presidential Libraries and Museums are impressive structures that act as repositories of valuable presidential records and artifacts. But who started this trend and when? What role do these institutions play in how and what we remember? Speaker Details Mary Ann Thompson   Married to Adventure: Osa and Martin Johnson's Films Pioneers in the early history of documentary filmmaking, Kansans Osa and Martin Johnson traveled the world filming people and wildlife in early 20th century. Speaker Details John Edgar Tidwell   Good Trouble The late political activist and U.S. congressman John Lewis coined the phrase “good trouble” to describe his civil disobedience in the 1960s. Others, who did not share his vision, considered his actions as merely “disturbing the peace.”  Speaker Details Kathryn Vaggalis   Love, Marriage, and Citizenship in the Early 20th Century America When exactly did the expectations about love and marriage become cemented in American society? Speaker Details Carmaletta Williams   Free Did Not Mean Welcome Discover how many realized that for Black people in Kansas “free” did not necessarily mean “welcome Speaker Details Ron Wilson   Ruralpreneurs: Tumbleweeds and Talents in Kansas Communities How can businesses succeed in small town Kansas? This presentation highlights real-world examples of Kansas entrepreneurs who have built businesses and created jobs and opportunities in a rural setting. Speaker Details Hannes Zacharias   City and County Governments in Kansas: What Do They Do and How are They Financed? Ever wonder about your city and county government? This presentation will explore how Kansas counties are different from cities, what each does, and how they are financed. Speaker Details Hannes Zacharias   Rediscovering the Arkansaas River From raging rapids to diversion dams for irrigation ditches, to dry streambeds, and finally barge traffic, this presentation will examine the impact this wild, elusive, and embattled river has had on cities, towns and adjacent farmland.