Cooper Conversations, facilitated by University Honors Program students, aim to bring together community leaders with Honors students for regular, meaningful conversations about important, if difficult, issues. This venue gives students access to important community partners to help them grow their success networks while allowing community partners to connect with some of UNL’s best and brightest students.
Each conversation focuses on an important topic related to community building and civic engagement, tied to the annual theme of the E. N. Thompson Forum on World Issues. These conversations further the goals of the Honors Program, specifically helping students develop 21st century skills and mindsets that will make them ready for an uncertain, globalized world. For each conversation, the Honors Program and its campus partners invite community leaders to gather with undergraduate students while engaging in authentic conversations about relevant current topics.
The Cooper Foundation offers financial support for Cooper Conversations and for the E. N. Thompson Forum on World Issues. Since 1934, the Cooper Foundation has invested in the people of Nebraska through its mission to support strong, sustainable organizations, innovative ideas, and ventures of significant promise.
Spring 2025 Conversations
Monday, Feb 10, 3:30-4:45pm
Global Education Center, Louise Pound Hall
Conservation Photography
With local photographers showcasing the beauty and diversity of Nebraska’s ecosystems.
Thursday, Apr 3, 3:30-4:45pm
Knoll Residential Center 258
Holistic & Natural Approaches to Human Health
With providers supporting health and wellbeing through functional medicine, nutrition, and more.
Fall 2024 Conversations
Monday, Sept 16, 3:30-4:45pm
Ubuntu Room/202, Jackie Gaughan Multicultural Center
Birds of a Feather: Birding as a Catalyst for Belonging & Advocacy
With educators using birdwatching to find their community and their voice.
Wednesday, Oct 30, 3:30-4:45pm
Platte River Room South, Nebraska Union
Nature Art: Drawing Connections to the Great Outdoors
With artists helping others learn about the natural world and conservation.
Thursday, Nov 7, 3:30-4:45pm
Chimney Rock Room, Nebraska Union
Mental Health Benefits of Nature
With scholars and practitioners exploring this connection in child development.
Spring 2024 Conversations
Wednesday, Feb 14, 3:30-4:45pm
Pioneers Room, Cather Dining Complex
Immigration Law and Advocacy
With local and state-wide legal experts helping to navigate immigration law.
Thursday, Mar 21, 3:30-4:45pm
Pioneers Room, Cather Dining Complex
Healthcare & Housing
With community leaders providing access to care and housing.
Tuesday, Apr 2, 5:00-7:00pm
Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center
PUSH Film Screening & Discussion
Exploring affordable housing as a fundamental human right with Alicia Christensen (Together Omaha), Brent Lucke (NeighborWorks Lincoln), and Lizzie Turner (Nebraska Appleseed with Collective Impact Lincoln)
Fall 2023 Conversations
Wednesday, Sept 13, 11:30-12:45pm
University Suites Multipurpose Room
Welcoming Lincoln: Embracing Immigrants and Refugees
With community leaders developing and implementing city strategies to welcome immigrants and refugees.
Wednesday, Oct 25, 3:30-4:45pm
Pioneers Room, Cather Dining Complex
Refugee Women Rebuilding Lives, Building Businesses
With refugee entrepreneurs and those working alongside them.
Thursday, Nov 2, 3:30-4:45pm
Pioneers Room, Cather Dining Complex
Newcomers Navigating U.S. Healthcare
With immigrants adjusting to the ins and outs of the American healthcare system.
Tuesday, Nov 14, 6:30-8:00pm
Wick Alumni Center
Forum Youth Panel: Displacement and Reimagining the American Dream
With local students and young professionals sharing their lived experiences as immigrants and refugees.
Fall 2022 Conversations
Monday, Sept 12, 2:30-4:00pm
Pioneers Room, Cather Dining Complex
Innovative Local Efforts to Support Ukrainians
With campus/community leaders offering assistance to displaced Ukrainians through fundraising, traveling, volunteering, advocacy, and/or scholarship
Wednesday, Oct 26, 9:00-10:20am
Pioneers Room, Cather Dining Complex
Saving the Pershing Mural: Public Art and Community Action
With local arts advocates, historians, and others engaged with the ongoing effort to remove, restore, and reinstall the 38-by-140-foot Pershing Center mural.
Thursday, Nov 10, 3:30-5:00pm
Platte River Room South, Nebraska Union
Creative Ways to Blend Culture and Care
With scholars, medical professionals, and others working to improve quality of care and health outcomes through empathy and understanding of patients' cultures.
Spring 2022 Conversations
Wednesday, Feb 16, 12:30-2:00pm
Red Cloud A, Cather Dining Complex
Tackling the Complex Dynamics of Race, Sports and Social Justice
With Dr. Lawrence Chatters (Executive Associate Athletic Director, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) and former Huskers Dr. Jamie Williams, Jay Foreman, and Michael Rose-Ivey
Wednesday, Mar 9, 2:30-3:45pm
Pioneers Room, Cather Dining Complex
Maternal & Reproductive Healthcare for BIPOC Women
With campus/community leaders focused on prenatal care, access and barriers to care, and post-natal support for the mother and child
Tuesday, Mar 22, 7:00pm
The Bay
Forum Youth Panel "Performative Activism: Youths Reckoning with Racial Justice"
With university and high school student activists discussing racial justice: What they’ve done, what they do, and how to move forward.
Fall 2021 Conversations
Thursday, Oct 7, 3:30-5:00pm
Pioneers Room, Cather Dining Complex
Global Starts with Local
With community leaders in immigration/refugee support
Thursday, Oct 14, 6:30pm
Knoll Residential Center
Black Men in White Coats: Screening & Discussion
With UNMC Faculty, Staff, and Students
Thursday, Nov 4, 3:30-5:00pm
Pioneers Room, Cather Dining Complex
Racial Bias in Artificial Intelligence
With campus/community leaders in computer science and diversity and inclusion