2024 Keynote Speakers

Scott Winter

Saturday at noon
Hemisfair Ballroom

Scott Winter, a professor of English and Journalism at Bethel (Minn.) University, earned his Ph.D. at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he wrote the 2015 sports biography Nebrasketball: Coach Tim Miles and a Big Ten Team on the Rise. His research interests are long-form creative nonfiction and international social justice storytelling. He spent a decade as an assistant professor at University of Nebraska, where he also taught in journalism master’s programs in India, Ethiopia and Kosovo. He takes Bethel students on social justice journalism trips in collaboration with the Art + Design Department to create magazines and documentaries. His students have won national Best of Show competitions, Pacemakers, Kennedys, Hemingways and Hearst awards. He likes the Swedish rockers The Hives, 1970s Ford pickups and red meat (even as a snack). Winter will show and discuss the documentary his students produced with Guatemalan partners, followed by a panel discussion.

TWO FAMILIES. ONE BORDER.

Two families tried to cross the Mexico-U.S. border. One made it. One didn’t.

Mardoqueo wanted his family to have its own home. Its own land. But he felt forced to split up his young family and cross into America to achieve security and happiness. He tried once and didn’t make it. He feels compelled to try again despite his wife’s objections.

Abel had to make that same choice in Mexico. But he made it. He brought his wife and daughters with him. He achieved a prosperity he sought, but he still dreams of crossing the border again. Back home.

DOS FAMILIAS. UNA FRONTERA.

Dos familias intentaron cruzar la frontera de México y los Estados Unidos. Una familia tenía éxito. Una familia no tenía éxito.

Mardoqueo Quería que su familia tuviera su propia casa. Su propia tierra. Pero se sintió obligado a dividir a su joven familia y cruzar a Estados Unidos para lograr seguridad y felicidad. Lo intentó una vez y no lo logró. Se siente obligado a intentarlo de nuevo a pesar de las objeciones de su esposa.

Abel tuvo que tomar la misma decisión en México. Pero lo logró. Él trajo a su esposa y sus hijas con él. Logró una prosperidad que buscaba, pero todavía sueña con cruzar la frontera nuevamente. De vuelta a casa.

Cathy Kuhlmeier

Monday at 9 a.m.
Hemisfair Ballroom

Cathy Kuhlmeier was one of three students involved in the 1988 U.S. Supreme Court Landmark case Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier. The case involved censorship of articles in The Spectrum student newspaper of Hazelwood East High School in St. Louis, MO. The school principal removed articles concerning teen pregnancy and divorce because he felt individuals could be identified in the articles. The US Supreme Court ruled against the students which overturned the 1969 decision in Tinker v. Des Moines where students did not shed their rights at the schoolhouse gate because the justices determined that school administrators could exercise prior restraint of school sponsored expression.

Kuhlmeier, 58, currently resides in Warrenton, MO, a small community in Missouri and is living her best life. She works as an adjuster for an insurance company handling workers’ compensation. She is the mother to two amazing adult children, Haley and Eric, and three fur babies. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her kids, staying active with new adventures, exploring new towns, volunteering at a dog rescue, and refinishing furniture.

Kuhlmeier actively travels and speaks regarding her experiences with censorship and talks with state legislatures across the country about New Voices USA in hopes to pass laws by state to restore rights to student journalists. She regularly teaches Zoom and Google classes with advisors and students from coast to coast educating them on her personal experiences with the case that can’t be read about in the textbooks. She is also the Founder of the Cathy Kuhlmeier Foundation for protecting students’ Freedom of the Press.