Narratives of Health and Illness
Race in America: 1919-2019
For the first years of operation, the Institute will organize itself around these broad themes of critical social importance. Future themes will be determined through community input.
The Kingfisher Institute is founded on a bold vision for the future of higher education, and Jesuit and Catholic higher education, in particular: a vision that liberal arts and professional education complement and reinforce one another.
Moreover, through the formation of faculty and staff, the Institute aims to influence every single student, in all of Creighton's nine schools and colleges. It will be instrumental in developing and articulating what makes a Creighton graduate distinctive - shaping the student as a Creighton lawyer, a Creighton accountant, a Creighton dentist, a Creighton occupational therapist - unifying heart, hands and minds.
The Kingfisher Institute is inspired by the Gerard Manley Hopkins poem, “As Kingfishers Catch Fire,” which Creighton President the Rev. Daniel S. Hendrickson, SJ, PhD, highlighted in his inaugural presidential address. In doing so, he challenged all members of the Creighton community to seek more and to find God in all things.
The Kingfisher Institute represents more than two years of foundational work by faculty and administrators across Creighton University as part of the University-wide strategic planning process. As part of the "Leading with the Liberal Arts" strategic planning goal, the Institute is aligned with the University's priorities, goals and strengths.
With the approval of the Institute in 2018, its offices will soon move into the new, state-of-the-art School of Dentistry building. This symbolizes the relationship between the professions and the humanities at Creighton.
The Institute will continue to expand through a phased approach, which will incorporate feedback from the campus community on ways to best achieve the vision. In this way, it will intentionally build on each successive year while also growing organically through affiliated faculty and staff who embed the spirit of of the Institute in their teaching, research and other endeavors.
Tracy Leavelle, PhD, has been named the inaugural director of the Kingfisher
Institute by Creighton President Rev. Daniel S. Hendrickson, SJ, PhD.
Currently, Leavelle is the associate dean for the humanities and fine arts in the College of Arts and Sciences and an associate professor in the Department of History.
Undergraduate students and advisors, find a course within one of our themes with this list of spring 2019 courses on race.
The Kingfisher Institute is now accepting applications for faculty development grants. These awards will support projects that infuse one of the Institute’s themes into the undergraduate curriculum. Up to 12 grants in the amount of $500 each are available.
Any member of the university faculty who teaches a Magis Core Curriculum course may apply.
Successful grant proposals will sketch how an existing Magis Core Curriculum course will be adapted through either:
Review of applications will begin Nov. 26, 2018, with adapted courses offered for the first time in Fall 2019 or Spring 2020. See complete details and how to apply.
The Institute offers opportunities for faculty and staff from across the disciplines to connect under a shared mission of transforming and integrating the paradigms and pedagogies of liberal arts and the professions - and, ultimately, higher education as a whole. Faculty and staff can make these connections through:
and much more to come as the Institute continues to take shape.
Kings of Broken Things, by Ted Wheeler
Wednesday, Sept. 26 and Oct. 24 from 3:30-4:30 p.m., TLC Training Room, RAML L33-34
Wednesday, Nov. 14, 3:30 p.m., Creighton at Highlander (2112 N 30th Street, Suite 101)
Facilitated by Kathy Gonzales, PhD, and Palma Strand, JD
Afflicted: How Vulnerability Can Heal Medical Education and Practice, by Nicole Piemonte
Wednesday, Oct. 3, Oct. 24, and Nov. 7, 8:30-9:30 a.m.
DHHC/Humanities 214 or via Zoom
Facilitated by Andrew Hogan, PhD
Reading group registration for fall 2018 is now closed. If you would like to receive news about future opportunities, please email kingfisher@creighton.edu.
Frankenweek: Oct. 23-31, 2018
In celebration of the bicentenary of the publication of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
Dates and times are tentative.
"What Med School Never Taught You: Confronting Vulnerability and Suffering in Medical Practice"
Wednesday, Oct. 3, from noon to 1 p.m.
CHI Health Creighton University Medical Center-Bergan Mercy
Room 11661 A, B and C
1 continuing education credit
"Humanities and the Health Professions: What Medicine Can Teach Us about Being Human," by Nicole Piemonte, PhD
Author of Afflicted: How Vulnerability can Heal Medical Education and Practice
Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2018 | 7 p.m.
Harper Center, Hixson-Lied Auditorium
Free and open to the public
"A Thousand Mile Walk - Reason, Altruism, William James and Blisters," by Tom Kirsch
Thursday, Sept. 13, 2018 | 2:30-4 p.m.
Mike and Josie Harper Center, Room 3028
Richard Rothstein, author of "The Color of Law"
Monday, March 25, 2019 | 7:30-9:30 p.m.
Harper Center - Hixson-Lied Auditorium
In collaboration with community partners, more events are being planned to observe the centenary of the brutal 1919 lynching of an African-American man, Will Brown, and the accompanying riots in Omaha. Watch this video to learn more about the history.
