For its 50th anniversary, the Center for Great Plains Studies’ annual Great Plains conference will celebrate our past and look to the next 50 years and beyond. This interdisciplinary conference features keynotes, panels, workshops, and special events that focus on four interconnected themes: environmental futures, re-imagining the rural, Indigenous futures, and demographic change and migration.

The following conference events are free and open to the public; please verify information on the conference website.

• March 31, 6:30 p.m., Lied Center for Performing Arts: Shaylyn Romney Garrett lecture as part of the E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues (free tickets required separate from conference registration)
• April 1, 9:00 a.m., Innovation Campus Conference Center: Ness Sándoval, keynote speaker
• April 1, 5:30 p.m., Sheldon Museum of Art: Teach-In with the Otoe-Missouria tribal members
• April 2, 9:00 a.m., Innovation Campus Conference Center: Neil Linscheid, keynote speaker
• April 2, 7:30 p.m., Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center: screening of Oyate Woyaka and comments by Susana Geliga

View the full conference schedule and register ($100 for full conference, $25 for students) at https://plains.unl.edu/events-conferences/2026-conference-great-plains-futures/