Agenda
Tentative Speakers for Humanities Mixtape: Rewinding the 1980s
Please note this agenda is subject to change.
Wednesday, October 22, 2025
5:30 pm Registration Opens
7:00 pm Opening Remarks and Welcome – Michael Tomanek and Dr. Kim Weismann
7:15 pm Screening: BeetleJuice (1988)
Thursday, October 23, 2025
7:30 am Check-in, Onsite Registration, Breakfast
8:30 am Welcome and Day 1 Opening Remarks - Michael Tomanek
9:00 am An Interview - Dan Gladden and Brad Balukjian
10:00 am Lessons from the Farm Crisis of the 1980s - Sarah Vogel
10:45 am Break
11:00 am Panel Discussion: The Gordon Kahl Case
Panelists: Hon. Robert “Bob” Wefald (ND Attorney General 1981-1984); Ret.
Assistant US Attorney David Peterson; Rev. David Ostendorf (co-founder of Prairie Fire Rural Action); Dave Thompson (Prairie Public, 1981-current)
12:00 pm Lunch (for paid participants)
1:00 pm How News Coverage has Changed Since the 1980s - Dave Thompson, Prairie Public
1:30 pm Dave Thompson and Lisa Napoli
1:45 pm 1980: The Dawn of the 24 Hour News Cycle -
Lisa Napoli, Author
2:30 pm Break
2:45 pm A Photo of Life Before the 1980s - Shane Balkowitsch
3:30 pm They Say to Never Meet Your Heroes; Are They Right? Brad Balukjian, Author
4:30 pm Close, Day 1
5:30 pm Evening Social featuring music by Rift
6:30 pm Introductory Remarks
6:45 pm Screening: The Terminator (1984)
8:30 pm Panel Discussion: The Terminator and the 1980s
Panelists: Chuck Klosterman, Debra Marquart, Brad Balukjian, Dr. Holly McBee, and Dr. Kevin Moberg
Friday, October 24, 2025
7:30 am Breakfast
8:30 am Welcome and Day 2 Opening Remarks
8:45 am How the 1980's Shaped and Influenced Fantasy and Horror Genres - Usman Malik (Virtual) and Josh Kern
9:30 am Gag Me with a Spoon: The Linguistic Legacy of Valley Girls - Kevin Moberg, Bismarck State College
10:00 am Break
10:15 am Revisiting the 1980s: Nostalgia, Place, and Cultural Memory (Virtual) - Dr. Melissa Vosen Callens,
North Dakota State University
11:00 am Apocalyptic Concerns and Aesthetics: The Cold War in Politics and Pop Culture - Holly McBee,
Bismarck State College
11:30 am “Shall we play a game?” Expressions of Cyberculture in the 1980s (and ‘90s) and How They
Align with Our Lives Now - Adam Tyma (Virtual)
12:00 pm Lunch (for paid participants)
1:00 pm Maya Angelou: The Power of Words in My Life -
Becky Stone, A Chautauqua Memoir
Brought to BSC by the Humanities Council of North Dakota
2:00 pm My Unplugged Eighties - Deb Marquart, Author, The Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the
Middle of Nowhere
Brought to you by OLLI at Bismarck State College
3:00 pm The Future Has Been Cancelled - Chuck Klosterman
Brought to you by OLLI at Bismarck State College
4:30 pm Closing