The Human Being: Body & Mind

Event: AH! Talks “The Human Being: Body and Mind”

Where: Lecture Bowl at the UND Memorial Union

When: October 20, 3:00-4:30 pm

The UND College of Arts & Sciences is proud to host the first AH! Talks Interdisciplinary Speaker Series presentation of the 2015 school year: “The Human Being: Body and Mind.”  The public is invited to the UND Memorial Union Lecture Bowl, from 3:00-4:30 pm on October 20, to listen, learn, and engage with our panel of experts. 

Researchers in scientific disciplines aim to tackle the problems of both the human body and mind in pursuit of improvement.  But so, too, do those working in fields in the arts and humanities.  Arts and humanities scholars, along with their students, wrestle with questions of why and how with regards to human behavior, thought, and action.  Emphasis in this panel is a hopeful initiation of such an investigation, focusing on the central figure of the human being.

“The AH! Talks series is designed in part to showcase the overlaps in disciplinary research occurring at UND,” said Liming.  “At the heart of all the research and creative work that takes place in a university setting is, in essence, the “human being” in both body and mind; thus, we chose this topic in order to provide an entry point to a conversation that might include every member of the campus community, regardless of their disciplinary background.”

Panelists will include: UND President Robert Kelley (Anatomy), Sheila Liming, Assistant Professor of English (Body and Mind in Literature), Hans Broedel, Associate Professor of History (Historical Perspectives), and Donavan Widmer, Associate Professor of Art & Design (Body Art).  Donald Poochigian, Professor of Philosophy, will serve as moderator.

“Faculty roundtables of this kind open up lines of cross-disciplinary dialogue: faculty get to talk to each other, compare notes, and discover common ground in their research, and members of the wider campus community get to witness and participate in that exchange,” said Liming.  “That kind of collective dialogue has been the historical basis for the university itself.”

AH! Talks (Arts and Humanities Talks) is the name of the Interdisciplinary Studies Speaker Series.  These presentations are designed to engage interdisciplinary thinking broadly and to be accessible to the larger community, bringing listeners to their own “AH!” moments as intellectual connections are made and our understanding of one another expands.  AH! Talks may address either enduring or emerging questions central to the arts and humanities, or questions arising from other disciplines to which the arts and humanities might speak.