By Colin Williams / Staff Writer

An idea to improve student engagement and foster new discussions came to fruition last month.

University of Iowa professor and author Kristy Nabhan-Warren paid a visit to Missouri Valley for the inaugural presentation of the Honors Lecture Series. In it, she discussed her book “Meatpacking America” and a book she is currently working on called “College Keeps us Human,” which she plans to publish in 2026. 

This was a two-day series, with the first day being about the aforementioned book that was published in 2021. Nabhan-Warren shared stories about her time working at Tyson but also the stories of the people she worked with, many of whom were immigrants. She also explained how their faiths and beliefs played a role as well. 

“I did a lot of interviews,” Nahbhan Warren said. “And what lead me to do the research in the meat packing plant, this is what I love about ethnography, you talk to people, you learn from them and then you learn that there are questions you haven’t been asking that you should be asking,” 

Honors College Dean Christopher Libby wanted to bring people in that would spark ideas with honors students. Libby and Warren have known each other for a while and he believed she would be a great speaker for the students.

“I wanted to have a week where I could bring a scholar who is well known, whose work is interdisciplinary in character, to come and give lectures and meet with students,” Libby said.

The lectures became more of an open discussion rather than a simple lecture. Students and faculty shared their opinions on the topics discussed as well as their own experiences. The second day of lectures, for the book she’s currently working on, gave students a chance to share their opinions about Artificial Intelligence, their experiences at MVC and even sharing cultural differences in the education and the sense of community from their home countries.

“Let’s have a conversation,” Nabhan-Warren said. “I find that I learn as much as a teacher and a scholar from the audience, or who I’m interviewing. And so I enjoy that. I did really want a lot of feedback with the second talk for the book and process. But that’s what I love about academics.”

Libby agreed that discussions are a great tool for teaching and learning.

“Any conversation like that, even if it’s a difficult one, is worth having,” he said.