Konopka Lectureships

The Gisela Konopka Lectureship was established with the support of Dr. Konopka’s friends and colleagues to honor her and her achievements on the occasion of her retirement after 30 years of contribution to the University of Minnesota. It carries on the important, unique tradition, of integrating theory and practice and humanizing services for children and youth.

28th Konopka Lectureship and 100th Anniversary Celebration
Konopka Lecturer: Michelle Dagnino

Date: February 9, 2010

Agenda: Lecture: 3:30 pm
                Reception: 5:00 pm
                Staged Reading: 6:00 pm

Place:
Neighborhood House at the Wellstone Center
179 Robie Street East — St. Paul, Minnesota
Map/Directions

All events are free and open to the public
No RSVP or registration required; limited seating

Think you know youth engagement? In 1973, Gisela Konopka documented youth engagement as a fundamental requirement for healthy youth development. Today, Minnesota’s youth-serving community embraces the idea that young people must have opportunities to partcipate as citizens and as responsible members of society. The challenge remains — how? Michelle Dagnino lived this challenge as a young person and advocates it in her professional capacity today. As this year’s Konopka Lecturer, she will offer us a global perspective on how young people — when critically engaged with community — sow the seeds of social justice and change. Michelle Dagnino is a young social justice advocate, author, lawyer, consultant and director of Youth Venture, a global community of young changemakers, which supports teams of youth to start their own organizations. Youth Venture enables young people to learn early on in life that they can lead social change.
Michelle has been a social justice advocate since her teen years, and has founded and led several award-winning organizations. Michelle’s innovative and thought-provoking work has garnered her national and international awards including the 2004 YWCA Woman of Distinction award and the Rotary Youth Impact Lifetime Achievement award. Learn more about Youth Venture 100th Anniversary Celebration With an unshakeable belief in the potential of all young people, the Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health sustains the legacy of Gisela Konopka. This year marks the 100th anniversary of her birth in 1910. Join us to celebrate and honor her life and work. Reception Immediately following the lecture, network, share your thoughts and catch up with friends at a reception featuring light dinner fare and beverages. Staged Reading: Silence Not, A Love Story Catch a glimpse of Gisa’s extraordinary life by joining us for a staged reading of Silence Not, A Love Story by noted playwright Cynthia Cooper. Silence Not is based on the true story of Gisa and her husband Paul, who find love and courage in the late 1920s and early 1930s as they speak out against the rise of Nazism in Germany.

2009 Lectureship Information
27th Konopka Lecturer ­– Mike Males, Ph.D.
The PANIC Over Girls
February 11, 2009

• Download .mp3 (45.5 MB)
• Download lecture text and data (PDF)
• About Dr. Males
  Mike Males serves as senior researcher for the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. He taught sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz for five years, is a columnist for Youth Today and has published articles in The Lancet, American Journal of Public Health, Journal of School Health, Los Angeles Times, and the New York Times, among others.

• Mr. Males is the author of four books on American youth - Framing Youth: Ten Myths about the Next Generation; The Scapegoat Generation: America’s War on Adolescents; Kids & Guns: How Politicians, Experts, and the Press Fabricate Fear of Youth; and Smoked: Why Joe Camel Is Still Smiling. Mike Males is also the Principal Investigator / Content Director for YouthFacts.org.

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  Past Konopka Lectures

• "The Panic Over Girls"
  Mike Males, PhD
  Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
  
  What Does it Take To Leave No Child Behind? 
  Pedro A. Noguera, Ph.D., Professor
  Steinhardt School of Education at New York University
  February, 2007

  “Democracy is Not a Spectator Sport”
  Nancy Amidei
  Director of the Civic Engagement Project, University of Washington
  September, 2003

  “Building on Possibilities: Weaving the Fabric of Community”
  Repa Mekha
  Executive Director, Freeport West
  May, 2002

  “The Practice of Mentoring”
  Jean Grossman
  Policy Institute
  May, 2001

  “The Roles of Parents, Peers, and Communities”
  Laurence Steinberg, Ph.D., Professor
  Temple University
  February, 2000

  Pathways From Childhood Aggression to Youth Violence 
  James Garbarino, Ph.D., Professor of Human Development
  Co-Director of the Family Life Development Center
  Cornell University
  May, 1999

  Taming the Tempest of Teen Pregnancy 
  Henry W. Foster, Jr., MD
  September, 1998

  Rosa Lee Cunningham and The Plight of the American Underclass
  Leon Dash, Pulitzer Prize winner reporter
  Washington Post
  May, 1997

  Return to Top

  They're Our Kids: They're Everyone's Kids
  New Pathways & Partnerships for Kids
  Judith Smith Musik
  Ounce of Prevention, Chicago
  May, 1996

  Preventing Youth Problems & Promoting Youth Development: Competing Priorities or Inseparable Goals?
  Karen Pittman
  International Youth Foundation
  May, 1995

  Doing Right By Our Kids: A Case Study in the Perils of Making Policy on Television Violence
  Patricia Wald, Circuit Court Judge
  US Court of Appeals, Wash DC
  May, 1994

  Activating Communities to Reduce Risks for Health and Behavior Problems
  J. David Hawkins, Ph.D.
  University of Washington, Social Development Research Group
  May, 1993

  Humanizing Institutions that Serve Youth
  Jan Berry, Executive Director
  Freeport West
  Special Lecture, 1992

  Growing Up Female: How Stormy and Stressful is the Transition to Adolescence?
  Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Senior Research Scientist
  Educational Testing Service, Princeton NJ
  May, 1990

  African-American Families & Children-at-Risk
  Andrew Billingsley, Professor and Chair, Department of Family and Community Development
  University of Maryland
  May, 1989

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  Raising Children Who Will Run The World
  Dr. Leon Chestang, Dean of Social Work
  Wayne State University
  May, 1988

  Adolescent Development Reconsidered
  Carol Gilligan, Professor of Education
  Harvard University
  May, 1987

  The Magnificent Illusion: The Professional Social Worker's Search for Asylum
  Jerome G. Miller, D.S.W., L.C.S.W.
  Executive Director for the National Center for Institutions and Alternatives
  May, 1986

  A Renewed Look at: Human Development, Human Needs, Human Services
  Gisela Konopka, D.S.W., Professor Emeritus
  University of Minnesota
  May, 1985

  Adolescents in the 1980's: Toward Dynamic Youth Development
  Norman A. Sprinthall, Professor
  North Carolina State University
  May, 1984

  Youth Employment, Unemployment, Underemployment: A Continuing Dilemma
  Ray Marshall, Professor Economics and Public Affairs
  University of Texas
  May, 1983

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  Juvenile Justice Reform: Agenda for the 1980's
  Rosemary C. Sarri, School of Social Work,
  University of Michigan
  June, 1982

  Social Aspects of Social Policy in Australia and Beyond
  Jacqueline J. Goodnow, School of Behavioral Sciences
  Macquarie University in New South Wales
  May, 1981

  “Social Science and Social Change: The Primary Prevention of Disturbance in Youth”
  George W. Albee, Ph.D., Professor
  University of Vermont
  May, 1980

  Those fateful moments when one abandons childhood to enter time.
  Mary Lee Nicholson, Ph.D., Professor and Head of the School of Social Work
  University of Alaska
  May, 1979