| Department | Seminar Title | Seminar Description |
| Academic Affairs | Exploring Your Path: Choosing a Major | This seminar offers students who are undecided on a major the chance to learn how academic exploration works at Luther. You'll hear how students discover majors, how advising supports exploration, and why being undecided can be a great place to start. |
| Chemistry | Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, Chemistry is the Key to Changing the Hue. | Explore the chemistry of color change by extracting pigments from flowers and learning about how chemistry can help us understand the world around us. |
| Communications Studies | Superheroes as Equipment for Living | Given the tremendous box office success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Extended Universe, this seminar considers how superheroes contribute to our understanding of contemporary human life. Embracing the epic, the spectacular, and the speculative, how do superheroes invite viewers to enter a public dialogue concerning such wide-ranging issues as gender, family, and politics? To what degree does superhero media function as a parable, a narrative that can reinforce or challenge cultural beliefs, attitudes, values, and norms? |
| Economics, Accounting, and Management | Management and Marketing
in everyday life | In this session, you’ll get to hear about the management and marketing experience Prof. Hongxiao Yu brings from her career. You’ll also explore what a Management or Marketing major can open up for you—both in your future job and in everyday life. And of course, come see the hands-on projects and real experiences you can jump into as a Luther student. |
| Education | Aspiring to be the Next Great Educator!! | Who sparked your potential?
We’ve all had that one legendary teacher who changed the game—the one who made school matter and helped you find your voice. What if you could be that person for someone else?
Get the inside scoop from current Luther students who are already on that path. They asked the big questions about what makes a teacher great, and they’re ready to share their stories. If you want to make a real impact, come hear how it starts. |
| Education/Music | Rock Band 101 | This hands-on session will provide a brief introduction to guitar, keyboard, drums, and bass. Never played a drum set before? Never strummed an electric guitar? This is your chance. No experience preferred! |
| English | Horror Fiction and The Social Imaginary | Horror fiction has risen to real prominence commercially and critically in recent years. This seminar explores how horror writers and filmmakers have intentionally used the genre's conventions to facilitate new perspectives on social challenges and changes. Likewise, we'll consider how horror stories can reveal the limits of our social imaginations. Professor Andy will share some of his recent research in the Stephen King Archive, and participants will have the chance to design a horror story or film or research project. |
| Environmental Studies | Luther's Path to Carbon Neutrality | Sustainability is a core value at Luther College and one of the ways we live out that value is through our commitment to be carbon neutral by 2030. We’ve reduced our greenhouse gas emissions by more than 72% since 2004 through improving our energy efficiency and investing in renewable electricity generation and purchase. But what’s next? What are the options as Luther continues to make progress toward complete carbon neutrality? Seminar participants will learn about the rapidly changing landscape in the clean energy transition both nationally and on campus as we discuss pathways to carbon neutrality. |
| Global Health | Global Health at Luther College | Explore Global Health adventures at Luther College, and get a taste for population health at a local and global level. |
| History and Africana Studies/Identity Studies | “‘The Afrikaners Took Possession of the Uninhabited Land’: How Apartheid South Africa and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Reinvented the Past.” | After apartheid, South Africa created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to help the country deal with its history of racism and violence. This seminar looks at why leaders chose the TRC instead of criminal trials and how both the apartheid government and the TRC may have reshaped the past to promote reconciliation. |
| Law and Values/Political Science | Mock Trial | Mock Trial with Luther students majoring in political science and law and values |
| Mathematics | Avalanches in Sandpiles | Together we'll explore avalanche sizes in the 1-dimensional sandpile model. Our goal is to identify important patterns in avalanche sizes that help explain why certain avalanche sizes connected to primes and powers of 2 often are "missing". |
| Modern Languages and Cultures | Study Abroad Opportunities in the Spanish-Speaking World | Hear ¡en español! about short-term and long-term study abroad opportunities in Spanish speaking countries. Spanish majors and minors at Luther spend time abroad immersing themselves in language and culture. Faculty and current students will show you where our students go and what they do while studying abroad. You will also have a chance to share your own travel and study abroad experiences while practicing your language skills. |
| Music | Anybody Can Make music! Universal Design for Learning in Music Education | Have you ever tried to teach an instrument to a young student but they are just not getting it? Worry not! Universal Design for Learning can inform creative practices for teaching! Learn how to teach your instrumentalists fun and engaging ways of making music together with research-based best practices that seek to include everybody in your classroom. |
| Music | John Williams' Film Scores | We'll explore iconic moments in several films scored by John Williams, focusing on how music and image interact to create dramatic tension and vivid characterizations. |
| Nursing | Using Nursing Simulation to Save Lives | This seminar is a wonderful opportunity to learn more about Luther College’s Nursing Program and tour the nursing labs and simulation center. Students will have the opportunity to practice nursing assessments and skills as well as observe a manikin in simulation. Current students will discuss their experiences and help throughout the seminar as available. |
| Physics/Engineering | Discovery, Exploration, and Innovation: the Worlds of Physics and Engineering Science | The deeply intertwined fields of Physics and Engineering offer the opportunity for curious people to explore interesting and important questions: What makes the universe tick? What all is out there yet to be found? How does it all work? How can what we learn help us to create new technologies and address complex, unsolved problems that society needs answers to? For us at Luther, curiosity and the drive to experience the pleasure of finding things out (a catch phrase of one of our favorite physicists, Richard Feynman) is paramount. In this seminar, you’ll learn from faculty and current students about some of the many questions we are exploring and how our programs at Luther help set students on the path to their future. |
| Psychology | The Psychology of Work-Life Balance | Work-life balance is a term that is thrown around regularly by both individuals and organizations, but what is it, really? In this seminar, we will discuss this elusive concept, the psychology behind achieving “balance,” and explore how the decisions you make today can facilitate balance in your future career. |
| Religion | Did God Have a Wife? Gods and Goddesses in Ancient Israel and Judah | In this seminar, we will explore archaeological evidence, ancient inscriptions, and biblical texts to learn more about the gods and goddesses that were part of the religion of ancient Israel and Judah prior to the emergence of monotheism. |
| Theatre | The Story of West Side Story | Discover the events that brought together the creative team that produced the hit musical West Side Story. |