Social
5:00

Literature: Book Discussion: My Antonia by Willa Cather
5:15
Presidents’ Hall

Discussion Leader: Cathy Hovancsak

This classic novel, considered to be one of the outstanding pieces of American literature, details the life of the early pioneers in Nebraska. The novel has some of the most beguiling literary characters: Antonia, bewitching and free spirited; her desperately homesick father; herself-indulgent mother; and the Russian brothers plagued by memories of a fateful sleigh ride. My Antonia is a deeply moving portrait of an entire community and its way of life.

Dinner
6:00

The Prairie as Idea: A (Short) Cultural History
7:00
Presidents’ Hall

Speaker: Tom Scanlan, Morse/Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota

In the 19th century, the identity of the Midwest began with our reaction to the prairie land. We would become the heartland of American democratic vitality and productivity, though always to some we were flat and boring. As the wild prairie disappeared in the 20th century, the prairie became an important symbol of what we had lost and of what we needed to reclaim. In overlapping ways, artists, writers, scientists, and conservationists have revived the idea of the prairie as a set of values. -Lonni Skrentner and Cathy Hovancsak