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Past Events
Tuesday, 22 Oct 2013
Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America - Wenonah Hauter
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Wenonah Hauter is the Executive Director of Food & Water Watch. Her book Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America is an investigation into the economics and politics behind our current food systems and how corporate consolidation affects farmers and consumers. A grassroots organizer and activist, Hauter's work on environmental issues has included roles as director of Public Citizen's Energy and Environment Program, environmental policy director for Citizen Action, and senior organizer with the Union of Concerned Scientists. She has an MS in applied anthropology from the University of Maryland.
Friday, 18 Oct 2013
In Pursuit of the Perfect Pig - Carl Blake
6:00 PM – Gallery, Memorial Union - Carl Blake has been researching and working for years to craft the most delicious pig in the country. Now, his Iowa Swabian Halls, raised on his fifteen-acre Rustik Rooster Farm, are winning culinary contests, attracting praise from chefs across the country, and drawing the interest of the Food Channel's Andrew Zimmern. He will share how his life's work went from computer consulting to a passion for pig perfection, and to a guest appearance with two piglets on The Colbert Report. National Affairs Series on Innovation
Classical Kevlar: Reconstructing Ancient Greek Body Armor - Gregory S. Aldrete
3:30 PM – Gallery, Memorial Union - History professor Gregory Aldrete leads the Linothorax Project, an ongoing effort to reconstruct and study a widely used a type of ancient body armor created by laminating together layers of linen. Despite being documented in ancient literary texts and visual images, the linothorax remains something of a mystery: due to the perishable nature of its material, no examples have survived. Aldrete's group has not only reconstructed several of these armors used by the armies of Alexander the Great and others, it has also tested the linothorax's effectiveness as a type of battlefield protection. Gregory Aldrete is the Frankenthal Professor of History and Humanistic Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. He is coauthor of the recently published Reconstructing Ancient Linen Body Armor: Unraveling the Linothorax Mystery.
Thursday, 17 Oct 2013
Watergate Forty Years Later: What Lessons Have We Learned? Ed Mezvinsky, Elizabeth Holtzman and Jonathan Yarowsky
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Edward Mezvinsky was a congressman representing Iowa's 1st congressional district in the House of Representatives from 1973 to 1977, serving on the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate hearings. He will join a discussion featuring Elizabeth Holtzman, who also served on the House Judiciary Committee and Jonathan Yarowsky, General Counsel to the House Judiciary Committee. James McCormick, professor and chair of the Iowa State Political Science Department, will moderate. The House Judiciary Committee reviewed and endorsed three counts of impeachment charges against President Richard Nixon as a result of the Watergate break-ins and its aftermath.
Importance of Congressional Papers for Research - Timothy Walch
3:30 PM – Special Collections Reading Room - 403 Parks Library - An open house and reception to acknowledge the gift from former Congressman Edward Mezvinsky of his papers to the Iowa State University Library. The collection contains his Congressional and public service papers. The gift includes papers from the United States House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate hearings.* After a welcome by Dean Olivia Madison, remarks regarding the importance of congressional papers to research will be provided by Timothy Walch. Timothy Walch is director emeritus of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, one of thirteen such libraries that are part of the National Archives and Records Administration.
Wednesday, 16 Oct 2013
Challenging Chinaphobia: Gender Differences - Kesho Scott
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Kesho Scott is an associate professor of American Studies and sociology at Grinnell College and a diversity trainer with more than two decades of experience leading programs to unlearn racism. She developed an "affirmative duty" technique for facilitating workshops that help participants shift their awareness, commitment and skill-set away toward being actively and personally anti-racist and anti-sexist, rather than passive observers. Kesho Scott is the author of The Habit of Surviving: Black Women's Strategies for Life, and coauthor of Tight Spaces.
What Is (Ab)Normal? How to Identify Mental Illness - Robert Krueger
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Psychologist Robert Krueger will discuss the differences between normal and abnormal human behavior and how the two overlap. He specializes in the diagnosis of mental illness and the role of genetics in personality and personality disorders. Robert Krueger recently served on the task force to develop the upcoming 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder. He is the Hathaway Distinguished Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University Minnesota. His awards include the Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution from the American Psychological Association. Disability Awareness Week.
Tuesday, 15 Oct 2013
How Migration Is Changing Our World - Paul Collier author of The Bottom Billion
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Economist Paul Collier, author of The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It, is an expert on developing markets. He is director of the Centre of the Study of African Economies at Oxford University, advisor to the Strategy and Policy Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and advisor to the Africa Region of the World Bank. His most recent books include The Plundered Planet: Why We Must - and How We Can - Manage Nature for Global Prosperity and, most recently, Exodus: How Migration is Changing Our World. Part of the World Affairs Series: Development, Defense and Diplomacy
Monday, 14 Oct 2013
Scientific Discovery and the Fight to End Global Hunger - Marc Van Montagu, Mary-Dell Chilton and Robert T. Fraley
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - From laboratory research to in-field applications, the innovations of Marc Van Montagu, Mary-Dell Chilton and Robert T. Fraley are helping farmers around the world improve crop yields and feed a growing global population in an increasingly volatile climate. Van Montagu, Chilton and Fraley are joint recipients of the 2013 World Food Prize for their research and achievements in agricultural biotechnology. Working in separate facilities on two continents, they were pioneers in molecular biology and the science of genetically engineering plants. Their work has made it possible to develop crops that are resistant to insects and disease, tolerate extreme variations in climate, require less chemical fertilizer and help ensure an agricultural livelihood for some of the world's poorest farmers. Norman E. Borlaug Lecture
A reception and student poster display will precede the lecture from 7 to 8 p.m. in the South Ballroom, Memorial Union. Posters will address world food issues and are submitted by undergraduate and graduate students.
Thursday, 10 Oct 2013
Innovative Solutions for Restoring Water Quality - Joe Whitworth
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Joe Whitworth is president of The Freshwater Trust where he and his team focus on cooperative, market-based solutions that benefit rivers, working lands and local communities. This work is especially important as traditional conservation methods used over the last quarter century are proving inadequate to the environmental challenges of today. A native Midwesterner, Whitworth has dedicated the last two decades of his career working to restore freshwater quality through innovative solutions. The Trust has developed strategies for water quality credit trading programs as well as an innovative, patented online platform to manage the funding, permitting, and implementation of restoration projects. The organization's goal is a new kind of conservation that properly integrates the economy and the environment to achieve measurable benefit and workable solutions. Part of the National Affairs Series on Innovation