Engaging conversation between the community and Colorado State University experts is sure to make one’s curiosity bloom during CSU’s new series, Ram Talks. Members of the Fort Collins community will be able to learn and grow their knowledge of unique ideas, from elephants to Cosmo the corpse flower.

Individuals can enjoy these conversations, held 5-6:30 p.m., in the recently developed Fort Collins Welcome Center at Old Town Square, right next door to CooperSmith’s Pub & Brewing. The audience can enjoy commentary on enriching, diverse topics in a relaxed yet insightful setting.

Kyle Henley is CSU’s vice president for marketing and communications and has been working on this series in collaboration with Visit Fort Collins to develop a way for the community to connect with significant matters that occur on campus. Henley said he believes this series will highlight the scope and significance of the work of CSU faculty.

For each session, a faculty member will give remarks on their designated topic and research before moving into a Q&A with the audience. Henley said this environment will allow individuals to feel like they are truly having a conversation with these experts.

“Being able to have an opportunity to hear one of the foremost experts in the world talk about something that they are passionate about and be able to have interaction with them — that’s a really unique and cool thing, and that’s part of the value of living in one of the best college towns in America,” Henley said.

Martín Carcasson is a professor in the department of communication studies and director of the CSU Center for Public Deliberation. He will be leading the discussion Oct. 2 on toxic polarization and how to better those larger, more violent societal divisions. He is looking forward to being in this space where the community can advocate for productive interactions.

“(There is) this unfortunate reality that humans were much more susceptible to, kind of, outrage and polarization than we are,” Carcasson said. “There’s our political system, media systems, and often that’s what we’re engaged in. How do we design processes that avoid triggering the worst of human nature and actually tap into the best of human nature?”

Jeni Cross is a professor in the department of sociology and director of the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences. Cross said she wishes to dive deeper into the hidden dynamics society tends to disregard in older problems. By pinpointing those hurdles, she wants to help society focus more on revising systems rather than one’s behavior.

“The work that I’m doing right now is really trying to help everybody to actually understand those hidden dynamics,” Cross said. “If I can help people shift their perspective (and) their orientation to seeing and understanding systems better than that, (we) can potentially empower anybody to be more effective in the work they’re doing.”

Cross said she hopes this event will bring a variety of topics and diverse perspectives in the future. This event will offer opportunities to stay updated on the many innovative ideas across campus.

“There’s so much exciting and innovative research and applied work and engagement and teaching that’s happening across campus,” Cross said. “(With) learning about someone’s kind of specific expertise, there’s always the opportunity to think about how something really distant from you actually applies to you.”

Future events

Sept. 4: Cross will facilitate a discussion on ways society can start reassessing systems.

Sept. 18: Professor George Wittemyer will lead the conversation on elephant names, delving deeper into the communication between elephants.

Oct. 2: Carcasson will speak on how to tackle the problem of toxic polarization along with bringing people together for more productive conversations.

Oct. 16: For the Halloween special, Professor Jessica Metcalf, postdoctoral fellow Valerie Seitz and Plant Growth Facilities Manager Tammy Brenner will converse on the rare blooming of CSU’s Cosmo the corpse flower and what they have discovered.

Nov. 6: Professor Brian Tracy will share his ideas on electric muscles as movers and sensors and muscle contractions.

Nov. 20: Ken Reardon, professor and associate dean for research, will speak on the topic of super-laser technology and the journey of fusion energy at CSU.

Reach Sananda Chandy at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @CSUCollegian.