EVENT
Celebrating 25 years of the Malcolm Renfrew Interdisciplinary Colloquium
- Title:
- Celebrating 25 years of the Malcolm Renfrew Interdisciplinary Colloquium
- Presenter:
- Dan Bukvich; Michael O'Rourke; Rick Fehrenbacher
- Affiliations:
- Music Medieval and Renaissance Literature Seattle University AgBioResearch Environmental Science Michigan State University
- Date:
- 2026-09-08
- Academic Year:
- 2026/27
- Description:
- As the interdisciplinary colloquium series begins its 26th year, this panel brings together the three founders, Michael O’Rourke, Rick Fehrenbacher and Dan Bukvich. The panelists will describe how their work as humanities fellows in the College of Letters and Science led to a weekly seminar series to showcase the work of their colleagues around the university. The first colloquium was September 11, 2001. Professor Emeritus Kenton Bird will moderate a discussion about the colloquium’s history and the nature of interdisciplinary collaboration at University of Idaho and elsewhere.
- Biography:
- Dan Bukvich has been teaching, composing, performing, and conducting at University of Idaho since 1976. Bukvich’s 50 years at University of Idaho and 47 years of full-time teaching make him the longest continually serving faculty member in the history of the School of Music. Bukvich’s other ongoing contributions to the cultural life of the campus include the Jazz Choirs Holiday Concert, Dancers Drummers Dreamers, the Renfrew Interdisciplinary Colloquium, the summer Arboretum Concert, and the Bukvich Music Composition Manuscripts Special Collection in the Main Library. Rick Fehrenbacher taught medieval and Renaissance literature for 20 years at University of Idaho and served as first director of its Distance and Extended Education division. He then served as Seattle University’s associate provost for academic technology and innovation, dean of its School of New and Continuing Studies, and director of the Center of Digital Learning and Innovation. His research interests included technology and teaching, AR/VR, and the digital humanities. Many of these interests found their provenance in the “Tools Are Us” symposium in 2000-2001 that was part of his collaborations with Professors Bukvich and O’Rourke as Humanities Fellows. He is now retired and lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Michael O’Rourke is professor of philosophy and a faculty member in AgBioResearch and Environmental Science and Policy at Michigan State University. He is executive director of the Toolbox Dialogue Initiative Center, a research and outreach center that uses philosophical approaches to build collaborative capacity in cross-disciplinary teams around the world. His research interests include interdisciplinary theory, epistemology, and communication and epistemic integration in collaborative, cross-disciplinary research. He had the distinct honor of being the junior humanities fellow in 2000-2001 at University of Idaho with Professors Bukvich and Fehrenbacher, and then a co-director with them of the University Interdisciplinary Colloquium.
- Original Link:
- https://libcal.uidaho.edu/event/17509383
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- Citation:
- "Celebrating 25 years of the Malcolm Renfrew Interdisciplinary Colloquium", Renfrew Colloquium Archive, University of Idaho Library Digital Collections, https://www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital/mric/items/mric2026-27-002.html