Search For Lectures

At Home and Abroad - Bill Bryson
8:00 PM – Stephens Auditorium - Every time Bill Bryson walks out the door, memorable travel literature threatens to break out. The author of more than two dozen books, Bill Bryson finds delight in the minutiae of travel and the subtleties of culture. He has chronicled everything from hiking the Appalachian Trail in A Walk in the Woods to his adventures Down Under In a Sunburned Country to his visit to Kenya at the invitation of CARE International in Billy Bryson's African Diary. His other books include Notes from a Small Island, The Lost Continent, I'm a Stranger Here Myself, Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe, and his memoir of growing up in Des Moines, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. His newest book is One Summer: America, 1927. Book signing to follow in the Celebrity Cafe. Part of the World Affairs Series

How Artists-Teachers Create an Exceptional Learning Environment - Gerard Morris
3:10 PM – Gold Room, Memorial Union - Gerard Morris, a faculty member in the University of Puget Sound School of Music, discusses how the success of any teaching style or pedagogical process is directly linked to the artist-teacher in front of the room. Artist-teachers are in a constant state of sensitizing or desensitizing students, which has an impact on the learning environment - the reality - they are trying to create. Morris draws on the research, teaching, and writing of physicist Alan Lightman, neuroscientists David Eagleman and Jonah Lehrer, and psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi to show how an increased awareness of how individuals perceive and create "reality" can foster success in the classroom.

The Science of Speed: Faster, Stronger and Safer - Diandra Leslie-Pelecky
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Diandra Leslie-Pelecky, author of The Physics of NASCAR, knows you can't win races without getting the math and science right. Her work has been featured in everything from TIME Magazine to the New York Times to Sporting News magazine. She blogs at www.buildingspeed.org, explaining the math and science behind current events in motorsports. Leslie-Pelecky earned undergraduate degrees in physics and philosophy from the University of North Texas and a PhD in condensed matter physics from Michigan State University. After fourteen years at the University of Nebraska, she recently became director of the West Virginia Nano Initiative and Professor of Physics at West Virginia University. Her current research seeks new ways to apply magnetic nanoparticles to make chemotherapy more efficient and decrease the side effects. Sigma Xi Series and Women in STEM Series

Jane Jacobs and Rachel Carson: How They Changed Our World - Robert Fishman
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Robert Fishman is an expert in the areas of urban history and urban policy and planning. He will discuss the impact of Jane Jacobs and Rachel Carson, two women who revolutionized the fields of urbanism and environmentalism as well as changed the way we think about sustainability. Professor Robert Fishman currently has an appointment in the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan. He has written two books widely regarded as seminal texts on the history of cities and urbanization: Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century and Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise and Fall of Suburbia.

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.

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.

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.

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.