Campus News / Events

 

TEDxLSSU will take place on March 22, 2023, at the Lake Superior State University Library at 7 PM – 9 PM. The independently organized event, licensed by TED, features local and non-local voices exploring the theme of “Identity.”

Launched in 2009, TEDx is a program of locally organized events that bring the community together to share a TED-like experience. Some of the best talks from TEDx events have gone on to be featured on TED.com and garnered millions of views from audiences across the globe.

“The theme for this year’s annual TEDxLSSU was inspired by the re-energizing of the LSSU Native American Center. The hiring of a new Native American Center coordinator, Robear Assinewe-Beaupre, helped spark a renewed discussion across campus around the concept of ‘Identity,’” said event organizer Marc Boucher, director of library and academic services. “There are so many ways that we as individuals conceive of the idea of who we are, or where we come from, that we thought exploring this issue through the TEDx platform would be perfect.”

LSSU President Dr. Rodney S. Hanley added, “This year we received more than 100 speaker applications, the most ever for us. We take even more pride in the wide-ranging and fascinating speakers who help fulfill our vision of offering an innovative and transformative education, our core values of advancing diversity and promoting freedom of expression, and one of our strategic plan priorities of collaborating with community partners. This will be a powerful, educational, and motivating event to foster lifelong learning for the campus and the region.”

Speakers at TEDxLSSU 2023:

• Colin Corby, CEO of Technology Wellbeing Ltd., and Ana Smith, leadership strategist: “Are We Losing Our Human Identity to Technology?”
• Sean Douglas, U.S. Air Force (ret.) and founder of The Success Corps, host of Create Launch Monetize podcast, and bestselling author: “The Answer to Veteran Suicides and Why Identity Matters”
• Sawyer Dowd, LSSU sophomore psychology major: “The Importance of Recognizing Intersectionality”
• Koral Fritz, LSSU assistant professor of business and licensed attorney: “Using Mirrors to Explore and Develop the Self”
• Brandan Robertson, author and public theologian: “Gay and Christian, No Contradiction”
• James Wilkerson, director of staff diversity and equity and Title IX coordinator at Indiana University Southeast, author, and sexual assault prevention advocate: “When We Cry: Mental Health, Masculinity, and Male Identity”

TEDxLSSU 2023, underwritten by the LSSU Issues and Intellect Fund, is free and open to the public. The six live presentations will each run less than 18 minutes, and there will be two short TED videos shown during the two-hour event. Seating will be limited to the first 100 attendees. Overflow seating will be available on site. For full details about TEDxLSSU 2023, visit https://lakerblogs.lssu.edu/tedxlssu/.

About TEDx
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TED Talks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized. (Subject to certain rules and regulations.)

About TED

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, often in the form of short talks delivered by leading thinkers and doers. Many of these talks are given at TED conferences, intimate TED Salons, and thousands of independently organized TEDx events around the world. Videos of these talks are made available, free, on TED.com and other platforms. Audio versions of TED Talks are published to TED Talks Daily, available on all podcast platforms.

TED’s open and free initiatives for spreading ideas include TED.com, where new TED Talk videos are posted daily; TEDx, which licenses thousands of individuals and groups to host local, self-organized TED-style events around the world; the TED Fellows program, which selects innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities; The Audacious Project, which surfaces and funds critical ideas that have the potential to impact millions of lives; TED Translators, which crowdsources the subtitling of TED Talks so that big ideas can spread across languages and borders; and the educational initiative TED-Ed. TED also offers TED@Work, a program that reimagines TED Talks for workplace learning. TED also has a growing library of original podcasts, including The TED Interview with Chris Anderson, WorkLife with Adam Grant, Far Flung with Saleem Reshamwala and How to Be a Better Human.

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