McQuillan to present Nebraska Lecture Nov. 3

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Julia McQuillan will present the fall Nebraska Lecture from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Nov. 3 via Zoom.

McQuillan, Willa Cather Professor of sociology, will present “Disruptive Questions and Productive Tensions: What Can Social Scientists Bring to Teams Seeking More Equity?” She will discuss how sociologists can help broaden perspectives throughout research by raising important questions that might not occur naturally to other scientists in the STEM fields.

“Multiple perspectives — and asking questions about what we don’t know and how to find out — help us to do a better job of seeking creative and viable approaches to grand challenges,” McQuillan said. “Indeed, perhaps one of the greatest challenges is figuring out how our own perceptions, social interactions and broader structures can shape what we know and what we do not know. We not only need each other’s expertise; we also need the perspectives that come from varied lived experiences.”  

McQuillan will provide examples of the usefulness of having “outsiders within” who contribute to and study team processes, ask fundamental questions about who is involved, analyze what perspectives are encouraged and reflect on possibilities, purposes, meanings, values, power and more.

The lecture and live Q&A will be broadcast via Zoom. Viewers may submit questions for the Q&A session to unlresearch@unl.edu. The lecture is part of the Nebraska Research Days celebration, Nov. 1-5. Registration is required to receive the Zoom link. Register here.

The Nebraska Lectures are offered twice a year and feature high-profile presentations by distinguished Husker faculty who address topics of broad interest in an engaging, accessible format. All talks are free and open to the public. The talks are streamed online. Regular updates, as well as archived videos from each lecture, are available here.

The Nebraska Lectures: The Chancellor’s Distinguished Speaker Series is sponsored by the Research Council, Office of the Chancellor, Office of Research and Economic Development and Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.