UW-Stevens Point faculty experts offer free community lectures

For the Metro Wire

From children’s toys to safe drinking water, faculty experts from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point will discuss a wide variety of topics in a public lecture series offered this coming academic year.

The College of Letters and Science Community Lecture Series will be held on select Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. in the Pinery Room at the Portage County Public Library, 1001 Main St., Stevens Point. The public is invited to attend free of charge.

The first of eight lectures, “Bats Under Threat—Are Wisconsin’s Bats Disappearing?” will be held Tuesday, Sept. 11, presented by Chris Yahnke in the Department of Biology at UW-Stevens Point.

“Bats are under attack from two different sources: A fungus that infects small bats that hibernate in caves, and the growing number of wind turbines that affect the larger migratory bats,” said Yahnke. “Learn how bats in Wisconsin are responding to these threats.”

The 2018-2019 Community Lecture Series schedule also includes:

-Oct. 16 – The Future of Human-Technology Interaction, Tomi Heimonen, Department of Computing and New Media Technologies
-Nov. 13 – The Great War in the Midwest: Publishing John Herrmann’s “Foreign Born,” Ross Tangedal, Department of English
-Dec. 11 – Ethics and Conscious Machines, Joshua Horn, Department of Philosophy
-Feb. 12 – Barbies or Monster Trucks? The Role of Gender in Children’s Toy Interests, Erica Weisgram, Department of Psychology
-March 12 – Science Fairs in the Age of Sputnik, Sarah Scripps, Department of History and International Studies
-April 9 – The Critical Function of Critical Thinking, Dona Warren, Department of Philosophy
-May 7 – Clean Water, Safe Water: The Basics of How Water Laws Impact What You Drink, Brad Mapes-Martins, Department of Political Science

For more information on the Community Lecture Series, visit www.uwsp.edu/cols/lectureseries or email [email protected].