Normandale Community College has announced the dates and session topics for its 2026 Spring Semester Richard Brown Colloquium Series.
The series will begin on Monday, February 9 and will have seven different session dates, which will run through Monday, May 4. All sessions are open to the public and campus community.
The sessions take place on Mondays from 2-2:50 p.m. in College Services Room C 1020.
The Colloquium Series is an important part of the living history of Normandale. It is a welcoming platform for sharing ideas in free talks given by a variety of speakers, usually but not exclusively faculty.
It originally ran from 2006-2018 and was renamed the Richard Brown Colloquium Series by the English Department to honor the faculty member who largely ran it. Brown passed in 2020. The series was revived across 2023-2024. Since that 2023 revival, more than 20 faculty in English, Art, Music, History, Theatre, and World Languages have all participated.
"The Colloquium Series was meant to provide additional learning and discussion opportunities outside the traditional classroom setting for Normandale students and the general public,” said Richard Brown’s son Jason Brown. “My dad would be honored and thrilled that the series continues to this day in his name."
Jason Brown, who is the Senior Principal Statistician and Technical Fellow at Medtronic, will be featured in a session on April 6 titled The Sublime Through the Lens of a Scientist: The Life and Writings of Carl Sagan.
The first session of the spring semester on February 9 is titled Lightning from the Page: Reading the one (or two) inspiring literary work(s) that first ignited a lasting commitment to the life of the imagination. It will feature Normandale English faculty Kris Bigalk, Sonia Greenfield, Roy Guzman, Mary Hammerbeck, Matt Mauch and Eric Mein.
That will be followed up by a February 23 session titled Summoning the Hidden Folk: How History Helps You Write featuring English instructor Tom Maltman and recently-retired English instructor Lynette-Reini-Grandell.
The next two sessions will be The Work of Angels: Aspects of the illuminated medieval Celtic manuscript Book of Kells featuring Art instructor Molly Skjei and English instructor Patrick O'Donnell on March 16, and A Historian's Viewpoint on Fascism and AI in 2026 with History instructor Jack Norton on March 30.
The final two sessions will be The Ancient Imagination of Ireland: Heroic Tales of Ulster featuring Réamonn O Ciaráin, CEO of Gael Linn and author of Cúchulainn: Ulster's Greatest Hero on April 27, and Mages, Murderers, and Matchmakers: The Literary Side of Genre Fiction with English faculty Sonia Greenfield, Eric Mein, and Patrick O'Donnell on May 4.
Later in September 2026, the Colloquium Series will celebrate its 20th anniversary (with a break of a few years from 2019-22). You can find all of the Colloquium series listings at normandale.edu/events.
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