Samuel Freedman guest speaker for History & Ethics forum
October 14, 2025
Dakota State University is hosting its fifth History & Ethics Forum on Tuesday, Oct. 21 with guest speaker Professor Samuel Freedman, award-winning author, columnist, and professor emeritus at Columbia University.
In addition to being a former columnist for the New York Times, Freedman is the author of 10 books, including the most recent “Into the Bright Sunshine: Young Hubert Humphrey and the Fight for Civil Rights,” which won the 2024 Hillman Prize for Book Journalism.
On Tuesday, Oct. 21, Freedman will give a talk on Hubert Humphrey’s South Dakota roots.
This annual event was first developed to help provide historical context for DSU ‘s cutting edge technology education and research.
In reference to the creation of the forum in 2021, DSU President José-Marie Griffiths shared, “DSU is wise enough to see that we cannot fully understand the computing revolution unless we place it in context. We need to ask questions about what history tells us, and what moral reflection provides.”
History & Ethics forum organizer, Dr. David Kenley, first heard Professor Freedman speak at an off-campus event and felt his topic was aligned with DSU’s mission for the event.
“When I learned that Hubert Humphrey was a South Dakotan, I knew our DSU community would find it both relevant and compelling,” he said.
Kenley noted Humphrey’s crucial role in advancing Civil Rights is often overlooked.
“Humphrey’s story reminds us that leaders from small states can make a national impact, and Freedman’s work highlights the importance of ethics and leadership,” Kenley said. “At DSU, we want our students to see that technology and research are never value-neutral—they must be guided by responsibility and civic purpose.”
The History & Ethics forum will begin with a reception at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 21 in The Beacom Institute of Technology, with the keynote at 6:30 p.m.