Honors Series Events

2022-2023 Speakers 

All events are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the Lemerand Auditorium, Willie Miller Instructional Center, and are FREE and open to all students, faculty, staff, administration and general public. 

Wednesday, November 2: Timothy A. Wise, "Eating Tomorrow: The Battle for the Future of Food” 

Senior Advisor at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, as well as Senior Advisor at both the Small Planet Institute, where he directed the Land and Food Rights Program from 2016-2020, as well as Senior Research Fellow at Tufts University’s Global Development and Environment Institute, Wise is a leading voice on the future of food.  In his recent book Eating Tomorrow (2019), Wise takes us on his investigative journey from Iowa to Mexico to several countries in Africa to learn directly from farmers, agribusiness representatives, government officials and others the true status of our global food supply, the often cited credo that the US is “feeding the world,” and the cultural, economic, and environmental implications of Green Revolution practices around the world. 

Learn more about Timothy A. Wise

Monday, November 14: Robin Wall Kimmerer, “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants” 

Mother, scientist, a SUNY American Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental and Forest Biology, author of several notable books, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Robin Wall Kimmerer fuses indigenous wisdom and scientific knowledge to highlight shared goals of sustainability and our pressing need to heal our relationship with the land.

Learn more about Robin Wall Kimmerer

Wednesday, February 22: Winona LaDuke, "What Does It Mean to Be a Water Protector — in Florida?”

Long-time Native American activist (of the Mississippi Band Anishinaabeg), economist, former (two time) Green Party vice presidential candidate, indigenous rights advocate, regenerative farmer, prolific author and … most recently … leader of the Honor of the Earth movement opposing the Enbridge Corporation’s Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline through sacred wild rice lands on her home ground, the White Earth Reservation (northern Minnesota), Winona LaDuke brings her blunt and commonsense arguments into focus through a survey of ongoing land and water degradation.  In her most recent book, To Be A Water Protector (2021), Winona highlights the efforts of unsung heroes and heroines who put their lives on the line to protect our most valuable essential resource: fresh water.  As freshwater quality declines throughout Florida, she poses the question directly:  What does it mean to be a water protector in Florida?  “Water is Life,” she emphasizes, and “There is no social change fairy.  There is only change made by the hands of individuals.

Learn more about Winona Duke