Montana State University Billings’ popular lecture series on World War I, which packed the largest classroom on campus on five Tuesday evenings last fall, will resume Tuesday evening.
Meant to commemorate the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, the lecture series features MSUB professors from diverse fields examining the immediate effects and continuing legacy of what was called, with a tragic optimism, “the war to end all wars.”
In the fall, speakers looked at, among other subjects, the literature, visual arts, propaganda and music of World War I, as well as at the effects of war in Montana as they played out in fights over free speech and sedition.
Over the next five Tuesdays, speakers will talk about chemical weapons, the involvement of women and American Indians in the war, the poetry of World War I and the fighting done on both sides by Montanans who returned to their homelands to take up arms at the outbreak of hostilities.
All lectures are free and open to the public, with presentations beginning at 6:30 p.m. in Room 148 of the library building. The series is sponsored by the MSUB Library. Parking is available north and south of the library, in lots off Rimrock Drive and Poly Drive. After each lecture, there will be a reception with light refreshments.
The opening lecture on Tuesday, Feb. 10, “Into the Bloody Fray: Montanans’ Return to the Home Front in World War I,” will be delivered by Paul Milan Foster, director of MSUB’s International Studies and Outreach.
Foster, a native of Billings with a Ph.D. in Slavic studies from Columbia, most recently worked as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at South East European University in Tetovo, Macedonia.
According to a description of his talk on the MSUB website, “The participation of these individuals in WWI draws attention to the multiethnic nature of Montana at this time, as well as the formation and reformation of national and regional identity—Montanan, American, and as it pertains to the emerging nations of South Eastern Europe.”
Other presenters and their topics are:
Feb. 17: Reno Charette and Jeff Sanders: “American Indian Involvement in World War I.”
Feb. 24: Tom Lewis: “World War I, Chemical Weapons, and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic.”
March 10: Sam Boerboom and Emily Arendt: “Democracy Should Begin at Home: Women and the Great War.”
March 17: Tami Haaland: “Down the Close Darkening Lanes: Poetry of World War I.”
For more information and a detailed list of lectures and receptions, visit msubillings.edu/ww1 or call 657-1655.
