PLU Lectures, Presentations & Workshops
Learning doesn’t end when you graduate! PLU alumni continue their quest for knowledge, engagement, and critical thinking as they explore new ideas, challenge their beliefs, and listen to new perspectives from diverse groups. We are excited to offer lectures, conferences, and workshops that are open to the community. See upcoming opportunities and past lectures below.
Upcoming Events
Migrant Ecologies: Plant Worlds and the Afterlife of Empire
Keynote speaker: Dr. Banu Subramaniam
A Therapist’s Calling to Heal Pain and Help Humans Thrive
4:00 pm (Pacific Time)
Join Jane Ryan ’98, PLU alumna and therapist, as she discusses the vocation of a psychotherapist, the significance of this work for her clients, and the challenges faced by therapists in this era of political and social turmoil.
Making Things Right: Plants, Tribal Traditions, and the Mountain
Lecture at 6:30pm
Greg Burtchard, Faculty Fellow in the College of Liberal Studies and former Archeologist with the National Park Service at Mount Rainier National Park, will be speaking from his book, Plants, Tribal Traditions, and the Mountain, the culmination of 15 years of cooperative research between the Nisqually Tribe and Mount Rainier National Park. This presentation addresses the nature and duration of precontact Indigenous use of Mount Rainier and its resources; and on research results that examine environmental effects of traditional plant gathering practices, clarifying how those practices function to preserve the viability of affected plant communities through time. No registration required.
Weathermon Jazz Festival
Grammy-nominated clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen has been honored as Jazz Journalists Association Clarinetist of the Year since 2007 and has topped DownBeat readers’ and critics’ polls multiple times. In 2009, she received ASCAP’s Wall of Fame Award for composition and musicianship.
Who Has the Watch? A Military Ethicist's Journey at the US Naval War College and Beyond
Thursday, April 16, 2026
Dancing with Uncertainty: Buddhist Pathways to Climate Resilience
Wednesday, April 22, 2026
Lecture at 7:00pm
If We Aren’t Church Now, We Have No Business Being the Church
4:00 pm (Pacific Time) – Virtual Presentation
In a world that feels fractured and uncertain, when so many rights are being stripped from those on the margins, and Christianity is being co-opted by those seeking power, what does it mean to be called into leadership and to proclaim healing and hope? Join The Rev.Shelley Bryan Wee ’88, PLU alumna and bishop of the Northwest Washington Synod of the ELCA, for a conversation about what it means to be a leader in the church today.
Walter C. Schnackenberg Lecture
Speaker: John Garrison Marks
Natalie Mayer Lecture
Stay Tuned for More Information!
The Calling of an Immigrant Lawyer in Minneapolis
Thursday, May 14, 2026
4pm (Pacific Time) – Virtual Presentation
Join PLU Graham Ojala Barbour, Esq. ’08 as he discusses the challenges of helping immigrants who don’t deserve to have their lives and families ripped away by deportation.
Therapist of Color Conference
Regency Room, Anderson University Center (PLU)
Latin America and the Holocaust
November 5-7, 2025
The Healing Arts: A Virtuous Science in Christian History
October 29, 2025
Health is fragile, especially amid social and environmental troubles. What might religious history offer today as positive models and tools to improve medicine, public health, and healthcare? Dr. Holman suggests that community health and human flourishing are possible only when healers are grounded in thoughtful, informed, and creative understandings of religious history as a healing art.
The Gift of Wilderness: Hammarskjöld on Hiking
Thursday, October 23, 2025
4pm (Pacific Time) – Virtual Event
Professor Don Johnson offers illuminating insights on the calling to hike as embodied in the life of Dag Hammarskjöld, Swedish diplomat and General Secretary of the United Nations.
Einstein's Blackboard: Struggles with Communication in the History of Innovation
Featuring Michael J. Halvorson, Pacific Lutheran University
October 13, 2025
How do individuals and organizations share breakthrough ideas with the public? Why is this process crucial for the funding and acceptance of new scientific discoveries, public health initiatives, and commercial products? Professor Halvorson will explore how innovation is framed as a public discourse and why famous innovators sometimes struggle to promote pathbreaking discoveries. This lecture will be Dr. Halvorson’s final university address as Benson Family Chair.
Faith and Religion in the Military: Soul Care and Interfaith Relations
The military is a critical site for interfaith and spiritual care, within hospitals and in the field. Learn more about the challenges, questions and insights that come with Faith and Spirituality in the Military and Medical Care and the ways military chaplains serve people from all backgrounds and build bridges across differences in challenging contexts.
Ninis’a:n-na:ng’a’/ The World Came to Be Lying There Again, the World Assumed Its Present Position
Annual Natalie Mayer Lecture in Holocaust & Genocide Studies
April 16, 2025
Presented by Cutcha Risling Baldy, whose research focuses on Indigenous feminisms, Californian Indians, Environmental Justice, Traditional ecological knowledge, and decolonization.
What if God is NOT in Control?
David and Marilyn Knutson Lecture
April 9, 2025
Dr. Thomas Jay Oord will offer a view of God’s loving activity that answers our biggest questions about life, evil, and scripture.
Peacebuilding and Motorcycling: Re-Framing Narratives in Documentary Filmmaking
Chris Stevens Celebration of Service
March 3rd, 2025
Keynote lecturer Dr. Jaremey McMullin
Preparing for Death, the Last Calling in Life
Vocational Vistas series
November 4, 2024
Makah Voices and the Sea
The Walter C. Schnackenberg Memorial Lecture
April 17, 2024
Speaker: Joshua L Reid
The Matter of Loneliness: Building Connections for Collective Well-Being
Wang Center Symposium
March 7-8, 2024
From Revolting to Revolutionary: How Poop Has Transformed Science and Reshaped the World
Rachel Carson Lecture
February 21, 2024
Speaker: Dr. Bryn Nelson
Adam Smith’s America: How a Scottish Philosopher Became an Icon of American Capitalism
The Seventeenth Dale E. Benson Lecture
October 19, 2023
Speaker: Glory M. Liu
Undesirables: Forced Mobilities and Internments in Mediterranean Bande Dessinée
Annual Natalie Mayer and Raphael Lemkin Lecture
April 2, 2024
Speaker: Aomar Boum
Workshops
Continuing Education at Pacific Lutheran University offers a variety of professional development courses and programs to meet the needs of business professionals and life-long learners. Discounts for the workshops below are available for PLU alumni, students and current employees. Contact Continuing Education at CE@plu.edu prior to registering for the discount code.
School Nursing workshops at PLU
The Center for Continued Nursing Learning (CCNL) provides excellent continuing education and professional development for nurses and other interested health care professionals. We offer multiple programs that provide the opportunity to gain contact hours and clock hours.