Paschal Kyoore, Professor of Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, will present the sixth annual Matthias Wahlstrom Lecture on Tuesday, April 26, 2022, from 4:30-5:30 p.m. in Beck Hall 101. The talk is titled “Challenging the ‘Center’ in Liberal Arts Education in the USA.” The event is free and open to the public, with Gustavus students, faculty, and staff especially encouraged to attend.
A world citizen who received his education at six different universities across three continents, Kyoore previously won the 2018 winner of the Faculty Scholarly Accomplishment award at Gustavus. The professor teaches courses in French, African Studies, and Caribbean Studies, and is a noted scholar in the area of European colonialism who has done field work in Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Cote d’Ivoire to translate the folk tales of the Dagara people into English and French.
The Matthias Wahlstrom lecture is intended to be an annual lecture by a Gustavus faculty member on the possibilities of the liberal arts in the 21st century. The donor’s intent is to annually showcase a Gustavus faculty member’s thoughts on this important topic for the college community as whole.
President Bergman will introduce Professor Kyoore and refreshments will be provided for after lecture conversation.
The lecture’s namesake, Matthias Wahlstrom, served as the College’s fifth president from 1881 to 1904 and helped transform Gustavus from an academy to a degree-granting college. During his presidency, Wahlstrom expanded and improved the College’s facilities, which transformed the campus and helped cement its future. Wahlstrom also turned the campus into a place where male and female students were equally welcome by allowing female students to live on campus for the first time.
Past Wahlstrom Lecture Speakers:
- 2021, Canceled Due to COVID-19
- 2020, Canceled Due to COVID-19
- 2019, Debra Pitton, “The embedded skills within a liberal arts education–the key to future success“
- 2018, Marie Walker, Psychological Science, “Diversity and the Liberal Arts“
- 2017, Michele Rusinko, Theatre and Dance, “Creativity, Resiliency, Dignity, and a Good Life“
- 2016, Max Hailperin, Mathematics, Computer Science, and Statistics, “Liberal Arts Education in the Age of Accountability“
- 2015, Deborah Goodwin, Religion, “The Liberal Arts and Class Warfare“
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