Curious People Series, Information and Speakers

If you are a UNO faculty member interested in speaking at a future Curious People Series event, please contact Heike Langdon at halangdon@unomaha.edu.

Connecting Curious Minds

Curious People events feature a UNO Faculty who speaks about a topic they are an expert in or have studied in their personal and academic lives.

These events are free and open to the Omaha community to explore and learn about a number of topics, ranging from parasitic brain drain to technology developed to bring missing service members home.

To learn about future Curious People Series events and other public events in the CEC, please sign-up to receive our monthly email, For Community Consideration (FCC).

2021-22 Series

Theme: Making a Difference Through Engaged Research and Creative Activity

This year, the Curious People Series is spotlighting a diverse array of UNO faculty whose research or creative activity is deeply linked to the community. We call this type of work "Engaged Research" or the "Scholarship of Engagement" -- and it's happening all across campus and in our community. Engaged Research plays an important role at Metropolitan Universities like UNO, as it is defined by collaboration, community partnerships, and tangible contributions to the public good.

Many thanks to the UNO Office of Research and Creative Activity for being our campus partner in this year's series.

2020-21 Series

The focus of this Curious People Series related to UNO's Big Ideas.

2019-20 Series

2018-19 Series

More about the Curious People Series

The goal of this series is to stimulate curiosity among attendees. Curiosity has many benefits to those who ask questions, including an increase in the ability to learn and retain information, personal growth, openness to new opportunities, and overcoming stereotypes. It also increases problem-solving skills, maintains a sense of wonder that helps with innovation, and creates positive interpersonal interactions.

Curiosity stimulates productive conversations by seeking to understand another’s beliefs and allowing participants to authentically examine their own assumptions and opinions. In order to genuinely explore new ideas, one must be actively listening and open to exchanging knowledge. This free series is intended to foster a community of like-minded searchers, interested in learning more about the hidden areas of expertise at UNO.