DSU is hosting the first in a series of forums that will bring nationally significant thinkers to speak on “the fundamental questions of our time.”

The Forum on History and Ethics will be Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. on the DSU campus in Madison.

The forum is a new venture for the university, which is best known for incorporating technology into all majors.

“DSU is wise enough and aware enough to see that we cannot fully understand the computing revolution unless we can place it in context,” said DSU president José-Marie Griffiths in a statement. “We need to ask questions about what history tells us, and what moral reflection provides. This forum will consider these issues and provide our students with a complete background in all things cyber, a necessary foundation as they move into the workplace in whichever career field they choose.”

The speaker for the inaugural forum is historian Dr. Bradley J. Birzer, professor of history and the Russel Amos Kirk Chair in American Studies at Hillsdale College in Michigan His presentation, titled: “The Essence of Freedom: Liberty from the Ancient Greeks to the American Founding,” will begin at 7 p.m. at the Beacom Institute of Technology Collaboration Center on the DSU campus.

“History matters. Morality matters. The long tradition of human thought and behavior is the only laboratory we have in which to test the consequences of ideas,” said Dr. Joseph Bottum said, associate professor of philosophy and the event coordinator.

“How can we reach from the Ancients to the Moderns, or the American Founding to the Computer Age? What is right and wrong about our world and our behavior, understood in the long tradition of human thought about history and ethics?” Bottum asked. “Here at Dakota State, we’re launching this new Forum on History and Ethics to bring to South Dakota nationally significant thinkers to speak on the fundamental questions of our time.”

The public is invited to attend, and to join Birzer and other guests at a public reception beginning at 6 p.m., also in the Beacom Institute. The event will also be livestreamed at https://youtu.be/OmKjuFNzmLc.

In addition to his teaching duties at Hillsdale, Birzer is co-founder of The Imaginative Conservative website, and the author of several books, including Russell Kirk: American Conservative and American Cicero: The Life of Charles Carroll. He and his family divide their time between Michigan and South Dakota.