2021 Spring Seminar Series Focused on Race, Justice and the Environment

The Nebraska Water Center (NWC), in partnership with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's School of Natural Resources, hosted its 53rd annual Spring Water Seminar Series in 2021. The series focused on race, justice and the environment and featured Nebraska, national and international speakers. Each seminar wove water issues into the larger picture. While the series has long been open to the public, due to COVID-19 it was delivered virtually via Zoom every other week.

Additionally, the series - with writing assignments and in-class, student-led discussions on alternate weeks - once again doubled as a one-credit hour undergraduate/graduate course.

The 2021 seminars featured one of the most diverse lineups in series history. Collectively, the speakers represented engineering, water chemistry, environmental studies, legal, policymaking, tribal and student backgrounds. They were also geographically diverse, with lecturers hailing from Oklahoma, North Dakota, Arizona, Puerto Rico and Kazakhstan. Nebraska speakers included legal scholars and several tribal representatives, many of whom also participated in a Tribal Water Summit on April 14.

Established in 1968, the series provides a forum to increase awareness and foster meaningful conversation regarding these issues. The series is a cornerstone of NWC‘s mission to help the University of Nebraska become an international leader in water research, teaching, extension and outreach.

This year's lecturers included:

• Anthony Schutz, Associate Professor of Law, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Doug Crow Ghost, Water Resources Administrator, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
• Marty Matlock, Executive Director, University of Arkansas Resiliency Center; Chairman, Cherokee Nation Environmental Protection Commission
• Rebeca de Jesús Crespo, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, Louisiana State University
• Bolat Uralbekov, Professor, Department of General and Inorganic Chemistry, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan
• Nebraska tribal youth who presented on water topics as part of the Tribal Water Summit and the seminar series
• Mónica Ramírez-Andreotta, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Science, University of Arizona
• Hank Miller, Math and Science Division Head, Nebraska Indian Community College
• Martha Shulski, Nebraska State Climatologist, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  
  

View a recording of each presentation.