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Past Events
Monday, 3 Oct 2011
Dorothy Day: Inspiration for the 21st Century Radical - Martha Hennessy
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - In the midst of the Great Depression and between two world wars, Dorothy Day cofounded the "Catholic Worker". Grounded in a belief in the dignity of every person, nonviolence, voluntary poverty, prayer, and hospitality for the homeless, hungry and forsaken, the paper quickly developed into a national movement. Both radical and religious, Catholic Workers embraced pacifism during World War II and Vietnam, were active in the Civil Rights movement, and stood in support of farmworkers and laborers. Martha Hennessy, Dorothy Day's granddaughter, will discuss the relevance of the Catholic Worker movement today and share her experiences of living the Catholic Worker life. Part of the Msgr. James A. Supple Lecture Series.
Friday, 30 Sep 2011
Science, Technology and Jobs - A Town Hall Meeting with Newt Gingrich
11:00 AM – Campanile Room, Memorial Union - Newt Gingrich was elected to Congress in 1978 and served the Sixth District of Georgia for twenty years. He was the architect of the "Contract With America," leading the Republican Party to victory in 1994 by capturing the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in forty years. In 1995 he was elected Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and led the first re-elected Republican majority since 1928. He left the House in 1999. As an author, Gingrich has published twenty four books, including eleven New York Times best-sellers. Gingrich received his bachelor's degree from Emory University and a master's and doctorate in Modern European History from Tulane University. Part of the Presidential Caucus Series.
The series provides the university community with opportunities to question presidential candidates before the precinct caucuses.
Thursday, 29 Sep 2011
Fiscal Solutions Tour - David Walker & Robert L. Bixby
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - The Fiscal Solutions Tour focuses on cutting through the usual partisan rhetoric, ideological divides and political smoke screens to focus on the positive: Where do we go from here? What key decisions need to be made in the not-too-distant future? How can reforms lead to a brighter future?
David Walker was U.S. comptroller general until 2008, one of his three presidential appointments. He then served as president and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, where he worked to promote federal financial responsibility. In 2010 he became president and CEO of the Comeback America Initiative (CAI) focused on promoting and achieving specific fiscal solutions. CAI received a three-year grant from the Peterson Foundation to engage the public and promote fiscal solutions, including those outlined in Walker's book Comeback America: Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility. Robert L. Bixby is executive director of the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to fiscal responsibility. The Concord Coalition was founded in 1992 by former U.S. Senators Warren Rudman (R-NH) and the late Paul Tsongas (D-MA). Former Senator Bob Kerrey (D-NE) cochairs the organization. Prior to his work with the Concord Coalition, Bixby practiced law and served as the Chief Staff Attorney of the Court of Appeals of Virginia. He has a juris doctorate from George Mason University School of Law and a master's degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Executive Vice President and Provost Betsy Hoffman will moderate the discussion.
Tuesday, 27 Sep 2011
Piled Higher and Deeper: The PhD Movie - Film Screening & Conversation with Jorge Cham
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - This film adaptation of the popular online comic strip Piled Higher and Deeper by Jorge Cham introduces audiences to the unique and funny culture of academia. Filmed on location at the California Institute of Technology, it follows four graduate students as they struggle to find balance between research, teaching and their personal lives. Jorge Cham, the author of the Piled Higher and Deeper comic strip, has been called the Dilbert of academia. His strip appears in numerous university newspapers and chronicles the struggles and humor of the lives of graduate students and stressed out academics. Cham speaks about his experiences as a doctoral candidate in mechanical engineering at Stanford and as an instructor and researcher in robotics at the Cal Tech. Three books compiling his strips have been released: Life Is Tough and Then You Graduate; Scooped!; and Academic Stimulus Package.
A discussion with Jorge Cham will immediately follow the 67-minute film.
Rusty Machines and Fairy Tales: Why the Twenty-First Century Needs Videogames - Ian Bogost
6:00 PM – Alliant Energy-Lee Liu Auditorium, Howe Hall - Ian Bogost is an award-winning videogame designer and media philosopher. He is a professor and director of graduate studies in digital media at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a founding partner at Persuasive Games, LLC. His research and writing considers videogames as an expressive medium, and his creative practice focuses on political games and art games. His videogames cover topics as varied as airport security, disaffected workers, the petroleum industry, suburban errands, and tort reform. His most recent game, A Slow Year, a collection of game poems for Atari, won the Vanguard and Virtuoso awards at the 2010 Indiecade Festival. Bogost is author or coauthor of seven books, including the forthcoming How To Do Things with Videogames. Part of the Technology, Globalization, and Culture Series.
Monday, 26 Sep 2011
How the Media Looks At Women - Rekha Basu
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Rekha Basu has been a columnist for the Des Moines Register since 1991, focusing on human rights, racial and gender issues and commenting on cultural trends. Born in India to United Nations parents, Basu grew up internationally. She has worked as a reporter, editorial writer and columnist at newspapers in Iowa, New York State and Florida. Basu's column appears three times a week on the Register's opinion pages and is syndicated by Gannett News Service. Her many awards include the 2008 Women of Influence Award, the Iowa Interfaith Alliance Award, and the Iowa Farmers Union Media Award. She has a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University and a master's degree in political economy from Goddard Cambridge Graduate School. Women and Gender Studies 35th Anniversary Keynote Address.
Friday, 23 Sep 2011
What Are You Being Taught and Why? How to Discern Worldviews of the Academy - Mary Poplin
5:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Mary Poplin is a professor of education at Claremont Graduate University, where she has served as director of the master's program in teacher education and dean of the School of Educational Studies. In 1996 Poplin worked for two months with Mother Teresa in Calcutta, India, to understand why her Missionaries of Charity describe their ministry to the poor as religious work and not social work. Poplin later published the book Finding Calcutta about her experience. She is a frequent speaker in Veritas Forums.
Thursday, 22 Sep 2011
The Joy of Censorship - Joe Raiola
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Joe Raiola is the senior editor of MAD Magazine and a crusader against unwarranted censorship. He takes a satirical look at the most hotly debated First Amendment issues, including the effect of 9/11 on free speech, banned books, movie rating, the FCC, and Internet filters. His research reveals abuses of the First Amendment that are as scary as they are funny. His presentation also traces MAD's history, from the publisher's showdown with the U.S. Senate over comic book censorship to the magazine's emergence as a satirical force. Joe Raiola joined the Theatre Within Workshop in New York in 1979 as a young comedian and built a career as a solo performer, comedy writer, producer, and director. Banned Book Week and Constitution Day Lecture.
Radical Marxist, Radical Feminist, Radical Love: What Mother Teresa Taught Me about Social Justice - Mary Poplin
7:00 PM – Stephens Auditorium - Mary Poplin is a professor of education at Claremont Graduate University, where she has served as director of the master's program in teacher education and dean of the School of Educational Studies. In 1996 Poplin worked for two months with Mother Teresa in Calcutta, India, to understand why her Missionaries of Charity describe their ministry to the poor as religious work and not social work. Poplin later published the book Finding Calcutta about her experience. She is a frequent speaker in Veritas Forums. The Veritas Forums are university events that engage students and faculty in discussions of life's hardest questions. Veritas Forum
Wednesday, 21 Sep 2011
The Mystical Arts of Tibet: The Symbolism of the Sand Mandala - Head Lama of the Drepung Loseling Monastery
8:15 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Monks from the the Drepung Loseling Monastery will create a mandala sand painting in the lobby of the Memorial Union Monday, September 19 through Thursday, September 22, working 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily. The process consists of opening ceremony with chants, music and mantra recitation and ends with the dismantling of the mandala and dispersal of the sand. Millions of grains of sand are poured from traditional metal funnels called chakpur to create a finished mandala approximately five feet by five feet in size. Formed of a traditional prescribed iconography that includes geometric shapes and ancient spiritual symbols, the sand-painted mandala is used as a tool for re-consecrating the earth and its inhabitants.