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What Matters to Me and Why
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - We want to know what matters to YOU- the voice of our generation - and why. Students of all ages and majors are invited to express and reflect on their values, beliefs and motivations to better understand the lives and inspirations of those who make up Iowa State University and their community. Student leaders and members of the university community will talk about choices made, difficulties encountered, and commitments solidified. Presenters include Meaghan Nelson, All-American student-athlete in track and field; Ethan Subra, Cadet Major in the Army ROTC Program; Moses Bomett, founder of Hope 4 Africa.; Onalie Ariyabandhu, survivor of 2004 Sri Lanka tsunami; Katie Brown, vice president of the Government of the Student Body and ISU band member; Dave Arends, co-director of the 2013 ISU Dance Marathon; Augustine Villa, cancer survivor and undergraduate researcher; Merry Rankin, director of Iowa State's Office of Sustainability.

The AIDS Epidemic: An Inside Perspective from Sub-Saharan East Africa - Dorothy Masinde
7:00 PM – South Ballroom, Memorial Union - Dorothy Masinde is a lecturer in the Global Resource Systems Program and an internship coordinator for Africa for those majors. She was previously associate director for field operations in Kamuli District, Uganda. She also serves as a co-leader in the school garden programs, working with Iowa State and Makerere University students and faculty in Uganda. World AIDS Awareness Week Event

How to Survive a Plague - Documentary & Discussion
7:00 PM – South Ballroom, Memorial Union - How to Survive a Plague is the story of how activism and innovation turned AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable condition. It follows a group of young people, many of them HIV-positive young men, who infiltrated the pharmaceutical industry and helped identify promising new drugs, moving them from experimental trials to patients in record time. Filmmaker David France incorporates never-before-seen archival footage from the 1980s and 90s, placing the viewer smack in the middle of the controversial actions, the heated meetings, the heartbreaking failures, and the exultant breakthroughs. A discussion will follow the 120-minute film. World AIDS Awareness Week Event

Investing for All or Investing for Some: Should We Try to Develop All of Africa at Once? - Peter Orazem
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - University Professor of economics Peter Orazem has researched topics ranging from the health consequences of child labor in Brazil to economic growth rates in university communities in the American Midwest to how technology has increased income inequality in Taiwan. Most recently he authored four of the top fifteen strategies to improve education in the developing world cited by a panel of leading economists at the global Copenhagen Consensus 2012. Orazem joined the Iowa State faculty in 1982. He has served as a consultant to the World Bank and on the team for the 2007 World Development Report. College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Dean's Lecture Series.

A Translation of the Bhagavad Gita - Mani Rao
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Mani Rao will present her translation of the Bhagavad Gita, an ancient philosophical text central to modern Hinduism. The author of eight books of poetry, Mani Rao's work has appeared in various journals internationally as well as in such anthologies as Harper Collins Anthology of Poetry by Indians and The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets. She worked in television and advertising in India, Hong Kong and New Zealand for twenty years before turning to literary and scholarly interests full time. She was a visiting fellow at the Iowa International Writing Program in 2005 and 2009, and the 2006 University of Iowa International Program's writer-in-residence. She has an MFA in poetry from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and is currently a PhD student in religious studies at Duke University. Her translation of the Bhagavad Gita is published by Autumn Hill Books.

Evaluating Student Writing and Speaking: Can Linguistics Help? Bernard Mohan
6:30 PM – South Ballroom, Memorial Union - Bernard Mohan was Chair of Linguistics at the University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin before becoming a professor in Language Education at the University of British Columbia, Canada, where he worked extensively with immigrant learners in Vancouver's schools. Now an emeritus professor at UBC, he is Research Fellow at King's College, London University, and took part in EUCIM-TE, an eight-nation research study in 2010-2011 that recommended changes in teacher education across the European Union to benefit immigrant language learners. Well known for his pioneering work on language learning and content learning, he is a functional linguist who sees language as a resource for meaning and regards language as the primary means of learning about the world. The 2012 Quentin Johnson Lecture in Linguistics.

Post-Election Analysis - Candy Crowley
7:30 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Candy Crowley was the first woman in two decades to moderate a nationally broadcast presidential debate on October 16. She will analyze the results of the election and provide insight from her career covering national politics. CNN's chief political correspondent, Crowley leads their coverage of presidential, congressional and gubernatorial races and major legislative developments on Capitol Hill. She is the anchor of State of the Union with Candy Crowley, a political hour of newsmaker interviews and weekly analysis. Crowley has worked as a White House correspondent for the Associated Press, a correspondent for NBC News, and a congressional correspondent for CNN. She earned a prestigious Gracie Allen Award in 2009 for coverage of Hillary Clinton's bid for the White House. Fall 2012 Mary Louise Smith Chair in Women and Politics and part of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women & Politics 20th-Anniversary Celebration. No audio recording available for download.

American Job Prospects in a Globalized World - Christine Romans
6:00 PM – Alliant Energy-Lee Liu Auditorium, Howe Hall - Iowa State graduate Christine Romans is the host of Your Bottom Line, CNN's Saturday morning personal finance and lifestyle program. In addition, she reports on the economy, politics and international business for CNN's morning shows. Her reporting is also regularly featured on CNN International. Romans served previously as a correspondent for Moneyline and Lou Dobbs Tonight. Prior to joining CNN, she reported for Reuters and Knight-Ridder Financial News in the futures trading pits of Chicago. She is the author of two books: How to Speak Money and Smart Is the New Rich. Part of the Technology, Globalization & Culture Series.

Muslim Footprints in Iowa: The Story of Emir Abdelkader - John W. Kiser
6:00 PM – Oak Roam, Memorial Union - How did a town in northeast Iowa - Elkader - come to be named after Emir Abdelkader in 1846? Why did the Emir's exemplary life and moral leadership in war, in prison, and in exile bring him worldwide acclaim during the 19th century from Abraham Lincoln, Pope Pius the IX, Queen Victoria, Emir Shamil, and a county lawyer in Dubuque? John Kiser, the author of Commander of the Faithful . . . The Life and Times of Emir Abdelkader: A Story of True Jihad, will discuss the relevance of this warrior and scholar for today.

Rewiring the Brain - Michael Merzenich
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Dr. Michael Merzenich is a leading pioneer in brain plasticity and Emeritus Professor at the University of California at San Francisco, where he retired as Francis A. Sooy Professor and co-director of the Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience in 2007. In the late 1980s, Dr. Merzenich was on the team that invented the cochlear implant. In 1996 he was the founding CEO of Scientific Learning Corporation, which markets and distributes software that applies principles of brain plasticity to assist children with language learning and reading. In 2004 he became cofounder and Chief Scientific Officer of Posit Science, a company which helps people throughout their lives by providing brain training software clinically proven to improve cognitive performance. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1999 and to the Institute of Medicine. Watch this presentation online: click here.