Upcoming Events
Philosophy Study Group
We will begin discussing the book, The Subversive Simone Weil: A Life in Five Ideas (2023), by Robert Zaretsky. This book is available new for around $15 in either paperback or as an eBook. For the 11th we’ll read the introduction and chapters 1 and 2.
Simone Weil was a 20th century French philosopher and mystic who was only 34 when she died, but her writings have been enormously influential. She strongly believed that one’s philosophy should be lived. The MISF Philosophy Study Group thinks that, too, and will do it if we ever figure things out.
From Memoir to Fiction and Today’s Publishing World
Vince Wyckoff will reveal the backstory to his first work of non-fiction, Beware of Cat, and Other Encounters of a Letter Carrier, and how it nearly cost him his career amid threats of federal felony charges. His Black Otter Bay mystery series has been met with less drama, but strong reviews and a loyal following of readers.
Black Arts Minnesota: An Autoethnographic Approach
This talk demonstrates how archival research and artistic practices bear witness to a Black presence in Minnesota dating as far back as the 1860s.
A North Minneapolis native and fifth-generation Minnesotan, Davu Underwood Seru currently serves as the Curator of the Givens Collection of African American Literature and Life at the University of Minnesota. Formerly, Davu was an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of English at Hamline University where he taught courses in research, writing and literature, for which received the prestigious Dr. Colleen S. Bell Outstanding Faculty Award. Additionally, he is co-author of the book Sights, Sounds, Soul: The Twin Cities Through the Lens of Charles Chamblis (MNHS Press 2017) and is an award-winning, internationally recognized drummer and composer.
The War at Home: Minnesota during the Great War, 1914-1920
Americans went to war in 1917 not only against Germany but also against each other at home. The controversial declaration of war came during a contentious time when farmers and workers challenged the wealthy, African Americans struggled against Jim Crow and lynchings, women campaigned for suffrage, and millions crusaded against alcohol. In The War at Home, Greg Gaut focuses on the lives of individual Minnesotans to tell the dramatic story of this period, when the state experienced bitter polarization, nativism, flagrant disregard for democratic norms, and intense, occasionally violent, confrontations.
Bulletin Board
The Minnesota Scholar, December 2025
New Venue for Monthly Forums!
Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 41st and Lyndale