Sesquicentennial events

September-October

Sept. 2: Sharing Our Stories
As part of Augustana’s Community Convocation series, members of the faculty who are graduates of the college representing various decades will shares stories of how their lives were transformed through the people, places and experiences of their own student days.

Sept. 10-11: Family Weekend
The recognition of multi-generation Augustana families will augment traditional festivities.

Oct. 1: O. Fritiof Ander Lecture
Professor Henrik Williams ofUppsala University, professor of Nordic languages and leading authority on runes and the Viking era, will speak. He will talk about the Kensington Rune Stone and the linguistic controversy surrounding it.

Oct. 8-10: Homecoming
Special events will be added to the traditional festivities.

These include an All Classes Reunion, including special classroom programs featuring current and retired faculty; a Friday dinner celebrating Augustana’s innovative Farm2Fork sustainability initiative; a presentation by Dr. Ann Boaden ’67 on her forthcoming book, Women of Augustana; and a Saturday banquet under the stars on the Quad. An affirmation of vows ceremony and group photo for all alumni married in Ascension Chapel is scheduled for Sunday.

Oct. 9: Signing the beam
At 11:30 a.m., a brief celebration will mark the reconstruction of Old Main’s dome, and will include an opportunity for alumni, students and the campus community to sign a 2 x 12 beam that will be used within the reconstruction.

Oct. 11-16: Beyond Bergman
The Department of Scandinavian Studies and the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center will sponsor an academic conference on contemporary Swedish and Scandinavian filmmaking and the formative effect of the filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. The conference will feature five films, one per night, and conclude with a symposium and guest scholars.

November-December

Nov. 5-6: Chicago symposium
A symposium co-sponsored by the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center and North Park University in Chicago will consider the relationship between the Augustana Synod and the Covenant Church. Dr. Thomas Tredway ’57 will be the keynote speaker.

Music
All of Augustana’s holiday celebrations will include themes of gratitude for 150 years of the educational mission of the college. This will include the Handel Oratorio Society’s Messiah production, the music department’s Christmas at Augustana, and campus ministries’ Joy of Christmas Past & Present.

Thomas Tredway Library

Fall events in honor of the 150th

Library Scavenger Hunt

River Readings, Sept. 23 Simon Ortiz, Centennial Hall, 7 p.m.

Display: “Blackhawk Memorabilia from the Collection of John Hayes,” 2nd floor

Display: “Snapshots of Entering Classes,” Special Collections

November/December

Display: “Reformation Printing,” 2nd floor

Display: “Christmas at Augustana,” Special Collections

Art Museum

Aug. 24-Oct. 30: Sesquicentennial Art Exhibition
Built around works from the Olson-Brandelle North American Indian Art Collection, the Augustana Art Museum and Department of Art History have prepared an exhibition and catalog as a celebration of art at Augustana. The museum’s winter exhibit will be Liberal Arts Through the AGES: A Sesquicentennial Retrospective. This exhibit will be shared with the Figge Museum of Art in Davenport through the early months of 2011.

Frieze Lectures

Oct. 21-Nov. 11
Rock Island Public Library

For its 13th year, the Frieze Lectures — instituted in the centennial year of the Rock Island Public Library’s main branch — will include four lectures on various aspects of the college’s history, including the women of Augustana, art at the college and general college history. The tentative schedule for the 2 p.m. lecture at the main Rock Island Public Library is:

Oct. 21 – Ann Boaden ’67: The Women of Augustana

Oct. 28 – Roald Tweet: Augustana and Rock Island

Nov. 4 – Thomas Tredway ’57: Coming of Age (Augustana 1935-1975)

Nov. 11 – Sherry Maurer: The Art of Augustana (slide lecture)