Luther College professors and students are sharing their findings about flooding and encouraging community conversation in Freeport during a community meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 16, at Freeport Park. The meeting is intended to facilitate a conversation among Freeport community members on how to create a community that is resilient to future flooding.

Olga Rinco Michels, Luther College professor of chemistry, was awarded the Ashford Fellowship from the American Chemical Society’s Exam Institute to collaborate on organic chemistry pedagogical projects during her 2019-20 sabbatical.

Jim Martin-Schramm, Luther College professor of religion, has been announced as the new director of the Center for Sustainable Communities. He serves a three-year term as director beginning spring semester of the 2018-2019 academic year.

Peter Lingen, Luther College teaching associate in music, will perform a recital at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 18, in Luther’s Noble Recital Hall in the Jenson-Noble Hall of Music. Lingen’s performance repertoire includes works by Paul Fetler, William Walton, and Domenico Scarlatti.

Carol Hester, Luther College professor of music, will perform a recital titled “The Flute and Dietrich Bonhoeffer,” inspired by the German theologian and pastor’s connections to the flute. Luther faculty members Xiao Hu, piano, Philip Borter, cello, and Igor Kalnin, violin, join Hester in the recital at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 9, in the Noble Recital Hall of the Jenson-Noble Hall of Music on the Luther campus.

On June 10, 1912, in the town of Villisca, Iowa, eight residents, including two parents, their four children and two youth visitors, were enigmatically slaughtered. Luther College Professor Emeritus and Villisca historian Edgar Epperly will present a lecture based on the early investigation of the 1912 Villisca axe murders at the emeriti colloquium at 3 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 13, in the Mott Room in Luther’s Dahl Centennial Union.

Asking Muslims to condemn terrorist acts can lead to racist scapegoating, an act which prevents majority populations in the West from coming to terms with their own violent past and their ongoing complicity in a violent world order, according to Todd Green, Luther College associate professor of religion.

A new water quality research project investigating water-borne disease-causing agents in Winneshiek County is underway. Eric Baack and Jodi Enos-Berlage, both professors of biology at Luther College, were recently awarded a $39,938 grant from the Iowa Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contaminants that will allow them to quantify levels of harmful bacteria and viruses in both ground and surface waters. Luther is the first small college to receive this grant in CHEEC’s 30-year history.

The Norwegian-American Historical Association is pleased to name Anna M. Peterson, Luther College assistant professor of history, as the Association’s new editor. For the past decade Peterson has been an active scholar in the field of Norwegian-American history. She will hold the two roles concurrently.

Luther College faculty Xiao Hu and Du Huang received the Tomson Family Faculty Fellowship award. A married couple amongst Luther’s faculty, Hu has been employed at Luther since 2002, and Huang since 2001.