Why “A Revolution of Hope and Community”?

From the beginning, the Morrill Lectures have had two goals that can be at odds: “Grow knowledge and critical thinking around important topics” and “Share a spirit of optimism and hope – that we can all make a difference in our communities.”

Important topics are complicated, and sometimes, the deeper we delve, the darker it gets.

This season, we are exploring how to stay optimistic and engaged while we learn more about difficult topics by focusing on these two goals:

Grow knowledge and critical thinking around important topics.
This year, we feature experts who will talk about some of the big issues facing our country – health care, poverty, food systems, immigration.  We’ll explore these issues from the perspective of our rural community – what’s happening on a larger scale? What does that mean to our community?

Share a spirit of optimism and hope – that we all can make a difference in our communities.
We know these issues are incredibly complex and have no simple solutions. The scale can be overwhelming. But we do believe that we can work on these issues locally – together – and make progress. At each of our events this year, we will feature one or more groups that are working to make a difference and could use your help.

 Our hope is that you will leave our events feeling like there is….well, hope! And that this hope is here, in our communities, if we make it.

 A huge thank you to Luis Alberto Urrea for inspiring our 2026 theme.