2020 Pilster Lecture and Mari Sandoz Symposium go virtual

The Pilster Lecture will highlight immigration in the American West. Keynote speaker Dr. Omar Valerio-Jimenez and a panel of experts, including CSC Associate Professor Dr. Kurt Kinbacher, will explore the topic from a national perspective. Attendees will be given an advance copy of his speech and the opportunity to ask questions. This will be a 90-minute online event Wednesday, Sept. 16 from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. MDT.

The Mari Sandoz Symposium will feature a panel discussion covering whom we are and where we come from. This will be a 90-minute online event on Thursday, Sept. 17 from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. MDT. The event will be led by four Nebraskans, including CSC graduates Broc Anderson and CSC Distiguished Alumni Award recipient Dr. Marty Ramirez, discussing the major groups who settled northwest Nebraska, including but not limited to: the Latina/os, Volga Deutsch, Japanese, Irish, African Americans, and Native Americans. The discussion will include the traditions these groups brought to the area and how they have shaped the cultural landscape. 

Anderson is the Community Engagement Director for Trails & Rails Museum in Kearney, Nebraska. He is an Alliance High School graduate pursing his master's degree in history through the University of Nebraska at Kearney researching borderland histories of Gordon, Rushville, Hay Springs, and Chadron to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He will also discuss the settling of northwest Nebraska by the Volga Deutsch

The Pilster Lecture is funded in part by an endowment from the late Esther Pilster, a retired Omaha school teacher and administrator who grew up on a ranch in northwest Nebraska. Funding is provided in honor of her late husband, Raleigh, and his parents.

These presentations are also funded in part by Humanities Nebraska and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.

For more information contact JL Schmidt at 402-890-9063 or jlschmidt67@gmail.com.