Tuesdays at 6pm – 7:15pm Central Time | Register to Watch Online
In the face of COVID-19, The Wisconsin Idea, Past & Present will adhere to UW-Madison’s Smart Restart plan.
All lectures will be online. To join the public lectures, please register in advance by emailing Chad Alan Goldberg at cagoldberg@wisc.edu. Lectures will be recorded and posted afterward on our website.
This semester we look forward to learning about timely topics from fantastic speakers. Below you will find the lecture schedule and links to more information on the speakers.
Speakers and Topics:
Introduction to The Wisconsin Idea
Sept. 8: Chad Alan Goldberg (Department of Sociology, UW–Madison), “The University’s Service to Democracy”
The Wisconsin Idea and Public Health
Sept 15: Tessa Conroy (Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, UW–Madison), “What Does the 1918 Flu Pandemic Teach Us about the Economic Impacts of COVID-19? The Likeness to and Differences from a Century Ago”
Sept 22: Sarah Marshall (Waisman Center, UW–Madison), “Improving Communication Access in Healthcare during COVID-19 and Beyond”
Sept 29: William Hartman (School of Medicine and Public Health, UW–Madison), “Staying Cool in the Middle of a Fire: Hope and Trust the Community”
Oct 6: Norman Fost (School of Medicine and Public Health, UW–Madison), “Rationing Ventilators during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Benefits and Limits of Bioethics”
Oct 13: Dominique Brossard (Department of Life Sciences Communication, UW–Madison), “Communicating about COVID-19: The Wisconsin Idea in Action”
Oct 20: Aaron Fai (Center for the Humanities, UW–Madison), “‘Humanities Responders’ to COVID-19”
The Wisconsin Idea and the Economy
Oct 27: Neil Kraus (Department of Politics, Geography and International Studies, UW–River Falls), “Reality or Fantasy? The Economy, Inequality, and Education Reform”
Nov 3: Steven C. Deller (Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, UW–Madison), “Extension and the Wisconsin Idea”
The Wisconsin Idea, Expertise, and Public Policy
Nov 10: Fred Clark (Wisconsin’s Green Fire), “Conservation in Practice: Science, Policy, and the Wisconsin Idea”
Nov 17: Jennifer Gaddis (School of Human Ecology, UW–Madison), “The Past and Future of School Lunch as a Form of Public Care”
Revisiting Charles McCarthy’s Wisconsin Idea
Nov 24: Jeff Snowbarger and Ross Tangedal (Department of English, UW–Stevens Point), “Charles McCarthy’s The Wisconsin Idea: Past, Present, and Future”
Inclusion and the Wisconsin Idea
Dec 1: Torsheika Maddox (Office of Strategic Diversity Planning and Research, UW–Madison), “DEI @ UW–Madison: Past, Present, and Future”
The Making of the Wisconsin Idea
Dec 8: Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen (Department of History, UW–Madison), “The Ideas That Made the Wisconsin Idea”