Bimson Seminars

Seminars typically include 15 to 30 participants meeting for approximately six days during the academic year or in the summer.

Background: Carl A. Bimson (second from the left in photo) attended Colorado A&M in Engineering from 1920 to 1923. He then worked for Mountain State Telephone and Telegraph Company and, in 1933 moved to Phoenix where he eventually became president of Valley National Bank. Although he never graduated from Colorado A&M, Colorado State University awarded an honorary degree in 1994 to Carl Bimson, the man recognized as a banking pioneer and industry leader. A bequest from his estate provides primary funding for the humanities seminars.

The Seminars: Mr. Bimson envisioned seminars that would permit primary and secondary school teachers to engage in advanced studies in the humanities with university faculty. Curriculum materials, collaborative research, or joint publications are possible outcomes of the seminars. Participants have come from as far south as Cherry Creek School District in Denver and as near as Poudre School District, although the college places no restrictions on where participants live.

A variety of seminars have been offered, including: "Educating Democracy," "Themes in Twentieth-Century American Cultural History," "Canada, Africa, and the Caribbean: Approaches to Francophone Literature and Culture in the Colorado K-12 Curriculum," "Learning and Teaching Ethnicity in Colorado," "The Three Gorges Dam Project," and "India: Diversity of Cultural Identities." As the topics of these seminars suggest, we have broadly defined "humanities" to reflect the perspectives of the arts, humanities, and social sciences in the liberal arts tradition.