Thursdays at the U fall lecture series starts with focus on international friendships

The fall series of the Thursdays at the U lecture series — featuring 14 upcoming lectures on a variety of topics — begins Sept. 5 when Mary Hankins, president of the local Sister City organization, the Rice Lake International Friendship Association, will share the 25-year history and significance of the Japanese Garden on the UW-Eau Claire – Barron County campus.

This and other lectures in the series are offered from 12:30-1:30 p.m. in the Blue Hills Lecture Hall in Ritzinger Hall on the UW-EC – Barron County campus, located at 1800 College Drive in Rice Lake. An informal reception in the aptly named “Yuujo No Niew” (Friendship Garden) will immediately follow the presentation. Light refreshments will be served.

Hankins is a retired senior lecturer at the campus. She has taught English as a second language for 40 years, both in the U.S. and overseas, and enthusiastically embraces any opportunity to reach out, communicate across different languages and cultures, and make new friends.

All Thursdays at the U sessions are free and open to the public, thanks to financial support from the campus foundation, which is funded by private donations. Neither parking permits nor seating reservations are required.

Most talks are livestreamed at ricelaketv.com and most are also archived for later viewing at uwec.ly/Thursdays. For more information, call the campus at 715-788-6244 or email holdenlk@uwec.edu. The topic of the Sept. 12 lecture will be Pharmacogenomics: How Genes Influence Our Medications.