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FACULTY & STAFF E-UPDATE |
Chris Combs is the 2025 Sanford Underground Research Facility Artist-in-Residence (SURF AiR). His exhibition, Desperate Remedy/Little Ones, first exhibited at Black Hills State University (BHSU), is traveling to the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology (SDSMT). The SURF AiR Program is a collaborative partnership between SURF and BHSU.
Tuesday, January 20, 6:00 PM
STEAM Café Lecture at Hay Camp Brewing, Rapid City, SD
“The Art of the Invisible: Making Interactive Sculptures About Neutrinos”
Friday, January 23
1:00–2:00 PM — Artist Talk
4:30–6:00 PM — Exhibition Opening Reception
Desperate Remedy/Little Ones (SDSMT)
APEX Gallery, South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, Rapid City, SD
Geek Speak is returning in February with a fabulous lineup!
Please join us on Mondays at 4:00 p.m. in Jonas 110.
(We're also looking for Geek Speakers for fall 2026, too, so please send a note my way if you're interested.)
February 2: Yukari Tadano
“Why Is Japan’s Suicide Rate So High?”
This speech explores the social and cultural factors behind Japan’s historically high suicide rate, including work culture, social expectations, stigma around mental health, and limited access to support. By examining these structural pressures, it aims to promote understanding rather than stereotypes.
February 9: Ezekiel Bucks
“The History and Impact of the Typewriter: An Analogue History.”
Come and look at some amazing relics from our analogue past! There will be real typewriters on display during this presentation to help connect with a piece of technology that used to rule the world but has become obsolete in less than a century. If you happen to own a typewriter, please bring it to show it off and to learn more about it! Let’s turn Jonas 110 into a LOUD, clicky, clacky newsroom! Together we’ll explore the development of the typewriter during the industrial revolution, its wide acceptance and standardization, and the way it effected society and culture in the twentieth century. The typewriter has had a substantial yet overlooked role in the development of digital technology we take for granted today.
February 23: Dr. Lesleigh Owen
“Race: A Very Serious Fiction”
Spoiler: It’s All Made Up (and Why That Still Matters)
How many racial categories do we recognize in the U.S.? Isn’t “ethnicity” just the PC way to say “race”? What the heck does “Caucasian” mean, anyway? Join Dr. Lesleigh Owen as she hops feetfirst into the messiness, ridiculousness, and consequences of pretending we can divide human beings into distinct “racial” subcategories.
March 2: Dr. Katelyn Kelly
“The Girl at the Edge of the World: What Miyazaki Can Offer Us on Hope”
In a world increasingly unreal and precarious, many to turn to realism or pessimism to stay grounded. However, these frames rarely help us imagine alternatives. In this talk we’ll explore what it might mean to ground ourselves in hope instead. We will look to the animator Hayao Miyazaki and his use of an active demanding hope. His movies hold beauty and violence–ruin and small acts of care–and the young as a model of hope within a damaged world.
March 9: Rosalie Aslesen and Katherine Kemp
“Transitioning the Meier House and Property into the Spearfish Museum”
This Geek Speak presents the dream for a community-run Spearfish Museum and will introduce you to the people fundraising for the project. Hear about their vision for how this museum can contribute to the city of Spearfish and why it matters now.
The Spearfish Museum is an emerging project that will transform the historic Meier House and its property into a museum celebrating the stories, people, and ingenuity that shaped the Spearfish area. Its mission is to acquire, preserve, and share the historic, cultural, and innovative spirit of Spearfish. The goal is to create a museum that feels engaging, memorable, and meaningful for residents, students, and visitors.
The Museum Board’s fundraising mission is to build on the $1.5M+ bequest from Johanna Meier DellaVecchia by rallying community support and raising the matching funds needed to open the museum within the next 4–6 years.
Ultimately, the vision is simple: a museum built by the community, for the community—one that tells Spearfish’s story and strengthens its future.
March 23: Dr. Tina Van Kley
“Hitler's British Fangirl: Unity Mitford and the Appeals of Fascism”
Unity Mitford was an English debutante in the 1930s, the youngest daughter of a minor British aristocrat. Her name is not one that most Americans are likely to know, unless you’ve seen the recent UK tv series Outrageous (2025). Her story is wild, however, and she is infamous for her commitment to fascism and, most notably, her obsession with Adolf Hitler. At one point, she was rumored to be his fiancée and is thought to have met with him more often than any other British person. Her diaries from 1935-1939 were published in January 2025 in The Daily Mail, and offer new insights into her pursuit of “the dear Fuhrer,” as she referred to Hitler. More broadly, her diaries and letters shed light on the appeal of fascism to young women at the time, and can help us better understand the resilience of this ideology, even after WWII.
March 30: Greg Strobel
“Slow Tourism and Human Powered Travel”
This Geek Speak will discuss the concept of 'Slow Tourism' and emphasize human powered travel as the method for the concept. It will provide insight into understanding the mindset, introduce different methods of travel, and highlight some fun examples from personal experience.
April 13: Dr. Courtney Huse Wika (Please note the change in date)
“A Poet’s Guide to Foraging: Creating Found Poetry”
In honor of National Poetry Month, this hands-on workshop will introduce the art of Found Poetry. Together, we’ll practice two distinct approaches, foraging from texts that already exist: the overheard, the discarded, the official and the everyday, and the overlooked. We will test how meaning shifts when language is lifted, reordered, and reframed. No prior experience is required. Bring yourself (and maybe a friend!)—and a desire to create.
Questions? Contact Courtney.HuseWika@BHSU.edu
When: Thursday, Jan 15, 8am-9:15am
Where: JA 103A (RSVP for Online Option)
Description: Join this workshop to learn about a new platform available to BHSU faculty, Panopto. Panopto offers a convenient way to create, edit, and host original video for teaching. It fully integrates with D2L, allowing easy viewing, tracking of student video completion, and even interactive quizzes within videos (all integrated with D2L grading).
In this workshop, experience Panopto tools as a student, see what managing Panopto content on D2L looks like as an instructor, and get started creating content using the platform. We'll also explore different instructional uses for video content to help you consider what adoption might make the biggest impact on your courses.
Note: Please bring a laptop if you attend in person
Hosts: Nick Van Kley, Anne Stevens, Prasanthi Pallapu
Remembering Spearfish: 150 Years of Community
Please join us for a public reception of a special exhibition celebrating 150 years of Spearfish community life on Tuesday, January 20, 2026, from 5:00–6:30 PM at the Ruddell Gallery, located on the third floor of the Student Union.
This exhibition features historic photographs of Spearfish drawn from the collections of the Leland D. Case Library for Western Historical Studies. The images showcase the people, places, and everyday moments that shaped the town’s identity, highlighting themes of resilience, ingenuity, and the unique character that has defined the northern hills across generations. Together, these photographs invite viewers to reflect on the evolving story of Spearfish and the shared history that continues to connect its past and present. Serving as both a tribute to the town’s heritage and an invitation to imagine its next chapter, this visual archive offers a meaningful glimpse into the roots of our community. The reception is free and open to the public. We hope you will join us in celebrating Spearfish’s rich history and enduring spirit.
INTRODUCING: JacketAccommodate!! This is a new software that will be ustilized to manage and negotaite students disabilty accommodations.
Please follow this link to learn more about JacketAccommodate: https://support.bhsu.edu/TDClient/30/Portal/KB/ArticleDet?ID=657
Please reach out to BHSU/Disability Services for any questions and/or concerns. We are in this togehter, we will make this transition to the new system a seemless and possible for Faculty and Students.
We will roll out this new accommodate process begining this semester, Spring 2026.