Note: Videos of past lectures may be available on the EFC Lecture Series page.
Past Events
EFC Lecture | American Art for the Public Good: Case Studies from a Career in Art History | Joni Kinsey, Professor Emerita, Art, Art History, and Design
Thursday, April 16, 2026 4:00pm
This illustrated lecture will offer a brief overview of topics in public art before taking one image in depth, exploring it visually and historically to demonstrate how visual imagery can contribute to a shared sense of common cause.
EFC Lecture | Brass Quintet Music From the 16th to the 21st Centuries: A Concert with Commentary | Scott Vogelgesang, Professor Emeritus, Internal Medicine
Thursday, March 12, 2026 4:00pm
The Quintet will present brass quintet music from five centuries.
EFC Lecture | Teaching Shakespeare on Zoom: Lessons and Learning | Miriam Gilbert, Professor Emerita, English
Thursday, February 19, 2026 4:00pm
Professor Emerita Miriam Gilbert shares lessons learned from five years of teaching Shakespeare on Zoom.
EFC Lecture | Academic Freedom: Implications of Recent Changes in Iowa Law and Rules from the Board of Regents - John Reitz, Law and Patricia Zebrowski, CLAS
Thursday, November 20, 2025 4:00pm
A discussion about the changing landscape in higher education and how it is affecting or will affect academic life.
EFC Lecture | Mozart, Le Nozze di Figaro: A closer look at a masterwork - Stephen Swanson
Thursday, October 16, 2025 4:00pm
A brief review of the collaborations between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte, along with a summary of the opera and plays by Pierre-Augustin Beaumarchais on which the “Figaro” operas are based.
EFC Lecture | Medical Directives: End-of-Life Planning and Decision Making - Len Sandler, JD
Thursday, September 18, 2025 4:00pm
This presentation will explore the legal, medical, practical, and human dimensions of end-of-life planning and decision making
EFC Lecture Series: From Language History to History as it Happens: A Sociolinguist in the Migration Crisis - Mercedes Niño-Murcia
Thursday, April 17, 2025 4:00pm
Professor Emerita Niño-Murcia will discuss big and small ways in which language politics generate and perpetuate North American inequalities.
EFC Lecture: Mary Trachsel - Going Feral: Animal Studies Scholarship in Retirement and Retrospect
Thursday, February 20, 2025 4:00pm
This lecture traces Professor Trachsel's studies on cross-species communication from analyses of ape language research in the early 2000’s to investigation of other interspecies language types, such as horse whispering and the telepathy professed by animal communicators. Her current research on human-wild animal relationships has entailed wolf-tracking in Yellowstone, a “women and wolves” workshop in the Boundary Waters, observation of feral horses out west, and visits to wildlife "encounter"...