Search For Lectures

How Has the Supreme Court Reshaped American Law? - Thomas Goldstein
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Attorney Thomas Goldstein has argued twenty-five cases before the Supreme Court, including matters involving federal patent law, class action practice, labor and employment, and disability law. Most recently he argued the strip search case: that county jail officials should use discretion in conducting strip searches on prisoners arrested for nonviolent offenses. Goldstein is also the founder and publisher of SCOTUSblog, which is devoted to coverage of the Supreme Court and is widely regarded as one of the nation's premier legal Internet sites. In 2006 he created the Supreme Court Practice at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld. He is currently with Goldstein & Russell and teaches Supreme Court litigation at both Stanford and Harvard Law Schools. Constitution Day Speaker and part of the National Affairs Series.

Masculine Community Life in 1890s Alaska Gold Seeker Camps - Sine Anahita
7:00 PM – Gallery, Memorial Union - Sine Anahita will present a multimedia program featuring photographs by Jasper N. Wyman, music of the era and a sociological analysis of the changes in late-nineteenth century men, masculinity and male communities. Sine Anahita is an associate professor of sociology and the associate director of Northern Studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She teaches and researches how organizations, states, and institutions organize social inequality based on race, class, sex, sexuality, gender, age and other markers of difference. She earned three degrees from Iowa State, including her PhD in sociology in 2003. While at ISU she taught in the Women's Studies Program and the Department of Sociology. She is also an accomplished fiddler.

Inspiring the Next Generation of Volunteers - Carrie Hessler-Radelet
5:45 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Acting Peace Corps Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet will discuss and take questions about Peace Corps service. She will be joined by Peace Corps Iowa State recruiter Susan Manikowski. Carrie Hessler-Radelet previously served as deputy director of the Peace Corps and as a volunteer in Western Somoa from 1981 to 1983. She has worked in the field of public health for the past two decades, specializing in HIV/AIDS and maternal and child health. This discussion will follow Acting Director Hessler-Radelet's joint presentation with USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah (4:30 p.m., Great Hall, Memorial Union), with a 10-minute break intervening.

Feed the Future: Food Security & Agriculture in Development - Rajiv Shah and Carrie Hessler-Radelet
4:30 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Dr. Rajiv Shah leads more than 8,000 professionals in 80 missions around the world as USAID Administrator. He has managed the U.S. Government's response to the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti, co-chaired the State Department's first review of American diplomacy and development operations, and now spearheads President Barack Obama's landmark Feed the Future food security initiative. He is also leading USAID Forward, an extensive set of reforms to USAID's business model. Shah previously served as undersecretary for research, education and economics as well as chief scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. There he launched the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, which significantly elevated the status and funding of agricultural research. He also served for seven years with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, including as director of agricultural development in the Global Development Program and as director of strategic opportunities. Carrie Hessler-Radelet is acting director of the Peace Corps. She previously served as deputy director and as a volunteer in Western Somoa from 1981 to 1983. She has worked in the field of public health for the past two decades, specializing in HIV/AIDS and maternal and child health. Hessler-Radelet was actively involved in the establishment of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and was a primary author on PEPFAR's first strategic plan. She was a Johns Hopkins Fellow with USAID in Indonesia and assisted the Indonesian government in developing and implementing its first national AIDS strategy. World Affairs Series Keynote Address

The Human Fingerprint on the Water Landscape of the 21st Century - Jay Famiglietti
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Jay Famiglietti uses satellite remote sensing to track water availability and groundwater depletion on land. His work is aimed at improving hydrological prediction in weather and climate models. He will discuss NASA's GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) mission and how the satellite images can be used to predict the future of water availability. The data collected raises important concerns for food production and economic and political security. Jay Familgietti is the 2012 Birdsall Dreiss Distinguished Lecturer with the Geological Society of America's Hydrogeology Division. He is a professor in Earth System Science and Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine.Part of the Department of Geological & Atmospheric Sciences Distinguished Lecture Series.

From Aid to Resilience: West African Farmers Lead the Way
8:00 PM – Cardinal Room, Memorial Union - Through Oxfam's Strengthening the Livelihoods of Small-Scale Farmers in Nigeria (SLISSFAN) program, Susan Godwin has in the last four years adapted her production to meet market demand, established a growing groundnut processing business, and received the 2012 Female Food Hero award in Nigeria. She serves as a role model not only for her community, but also for her husband and five children. Dienaba Diallo has seen firsthand the encroachment of the Saharan Desert into her community's grazing lands, but these challenges did not keep her from leaving a teaching career to rejoin her ethnic group's traditional vocation of animal herding. Diallo helped found the Association for the Promotion of Animal Rearing in the Savannah and the Sahel (APESS). To feed their animals in spite of shrinking pastureland, APESS encouraged planting hay for animal fodder, trained them in milk processing and provided literacy classes. Diallo also founded the Needi association with 156 women supporting each other's professional development and schooling for all their children. Part of the World Affairs Series.

Life on the Spectrum - David Finch
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - David Finch is the author of the New York Times best-selling memoir The Journal of Best Practices. Married in 2003 and diagnosed five years later with Asperger syndrome, he has committed himself to relentless self-improvement, sometimes to a comical extent. A former semiconductor engineer turned full-time writer and speaker, David Finch has written for The New York Times, Huffington Post and Slate. He also writes a relationship blog for Psychology Today. He will discuss living with an autism-spectrum condition and his persistent and focused efforts to improve as an individual, husband and father. His experience is a lesson in adaptability and self-motivation for how to succeed in relationships, career, marriage, or any aspect of life.

Soil, Water, Energy and Ecosystems in a Changing Climate - Daniel Hillel
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Daniel Hillel has been named the 2012 World Food Prize Laureate for developing and implementing micro-irrigation systems to deliver water more efficiently to crops in dry lands. For more than fifty years these precision watering systems have revolutionized agriculture in the Middle East and other arid regions around the world, allowing producers to maximize water resources, increase crop yields, and minimize environmental degradation. Trained as a soil physicist, Daniel Hillel emphasizes the inter-connectedness of food production, water management, and soil science in his work. The World Bank, U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, and the U.S. Agency for International Development have promoted his techniques globally. He is currently a research scientist at Columbia University's Earth Institute and is working on the adaptation of agriculture to climate change in association with NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies. 2012 Norman Borlaug Lecture and part of the World Affairs Series. A reception and student poster display will precede the lecture from 7 to 8 p.m. in the Oak Room, Memorial Union. Posters will address world food issues and are submitted by undergraduate and graduate students.

The Keystone XL Pipeline and the Protection of American Lands - Randy Thompson
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Nebraska rancher Randy Thompson is a leader in the opposition to the proposed TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry tar-sands crude-oil mined in Alberta, Canada, 1,700 miles across the Great Plains to Gulf Coast refineries. He became an opponent of the Keystone XL pipeline out of conerns that his land would be condemned for the pipeline. "Stand with Randy" events were organized across Nebraska to support his efforts. His land is no longer threatened by the new proposed route, but he continues to speak out about how the pipeline threatens other Nebraska farms and ranches. Part of the National Affairs Series. Tom Poor Bear, Vice President of the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota Nation and a longtime American Indian activist, was unable to participate in the presentation. His talk will be rescheduled for a later date.

A Killer in the Dark: Documentary & Discussion
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - A Killer in the Dark is a documentary about the fight against malaria, a preventable disease that kills an estimated 800,000 people each year. The film shows what life is like for those fearful of contracting the disease and highlights the work of Imagine No Malaria, a ministry affiliated with the United Methodist Church in Africa. A Killer in the Dark was created as a TV special and aired on NBC affiliates nationwide in 2011. It is narrated by Pauley Perrette, who is best known for her role on NCSI. Katie Dawson, coordinator for Imagine No Malaria in the Iowa Annual Conference, and Lyric Bartholomay, Iowa State associate professor of medical entomology, will lead a post-film discussion and Q&A.