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Past Events

Tuesday, 29 Sep 2009

Global Warming and Public Policy: The Impact of President Obama's G–20 Address on Climate Change - Mark Bryden
7:00 PM – Pioneer Room, Memorial Union - President Obama addressed the G-20 Summit leaders and organizations of industrial and emerging-market countries on September 24, in Pittsburgh. The focus was securing a sustainable future for all countries, including progress on long-term issues such as climate change. Kenneth "Mark" Bryden, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Iowa State, will offer commentary and lead a discussion on Obama's address. He has an active research and teaching program in the areas of sustainable engineering, appropriate technology, decision science, and simulation based engineering science. Bryden is also the president of Engineers for Technical and Humanitarian Opportunities for Service (ETHOS), an international NGO focused on the issues of household energy in the developing world.

Sunday, 27 Sep 2009

The True Price of Victory: Curator's Lecture - Lea Rosson Delong
2:00 PM – Christian Petersen Art Museum, 1017 Morrill Hall - Lea Rosson Delong discusses her scholarship on Christian Petersen and explores the strong side of this gentle sculptor. She received her B.A. from the University of Oklahoma and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Kansas. In addition to contemporary art, she has concentrated on American art of the Depression era, curating exhibitions and writing about the southwestern painter Alexandre Hogue and about New Deal art of the Midwest.

Thursday, 24 Sep 2009

Toward a Post Carbon Food System - Richard Heinberg
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow in Residence at the Post Carbon Institute, is the author of eight books including The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies; Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World; The Oil Depletion Protocol: A Plan to Avert Oil Wars, Terrorism, and Economic Collapse; and Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines. He writes a regular column for the Ecologist magazine and has authored scores of essays and articles that have appeared in such journals as The American Prospect, Public Policy Research, European Business Review, Earth Island Journal, Yes! Magazine, and The Sun, as well as on websites such as Alternet.org, EnergyBulletin.net, and Counterpunch.com. He has been featured in many film documentaries, including End of Suburbia and Leonardo DiCaprio's 11th Hour. Part of the Live Green! Sustainability Series and the National Affairs Series.

Please Don't Come Back from the Moon & Other Stories : A Fiction Reading - Dean Bakopoulos
7:00 PM – Maintenance Shop, Memorial Union - Dean Bakopoulos is a new faculty member in the Iowa State Creative Writing Program and author of the novel Please Don't Come Back from the Moon, a New York Times Notable Book. He has lectured at many universities about the economic and environmental problems facing the post-industrial Rust Belt and has published related essays and criticism. His one-act plays "Phonies" and "Wayside" have been produced at Alley Stage in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. 

The winner of a 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2006 National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, he is the former director of both the Wisconsin Book Festival and the Wisconsin Humanities Council. Bakopoulos earned an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Part of the Eco-Voices Series.

Tuesday, 22 Sep 2009

Taking Control of Your Financial Future in Tough Times - Jeanne Hogarth
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Jeanne Hogarth is a program manager for the Federal Reserve Board in Consumer Education and Research, specializing in consumer finance. She will discuss ways people can become more financially competent in today's financial markets, with a special focus on access and affordability of higher education and student loan debt loads. Hogarth has authored articles on electronic banking, patterns of financial behavior, and connections between knowledge and behavior in household financial management. She also prepares consumer information materials with a focus on information that is clear and understandable. Hogarth is on the staff of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. She worked previously with the Cooperative Extension System and has taught at the university and high school levels. She holds a doctorate in family and consumer economics from The Ohio State University. The Helen LeBaron Hilton Chair in Human Sciences Lecture.

Caught in the Middle: America's Heartland in the Age of Globalism - Richard Longworth
6:00 PM – Alliant Energy-Lee Liu Auditorium, Howe Hall - Journalist Richard Longworth is the author of Caught in the Middle: America's Heartland in the Age of Globalism. For twenty years Longworth was a foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and United Press International and was the Tribune's Chief European Correspondent. He is the author of Global Squeeze, one of the first books on globalization, as well as the MacArthur Foundation report "Global Chicago." Longworth is a two-time recipient of the Overseas Press Club Award for series on globalization and the UN and was twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He is a senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and distinguished visiting scholar at DePaul University. Part of the Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities Series: Iowa in the Global Community and the Globalization, Technology, and Culture Series.

Monday, 21 Sep 2009

Emotional Intelligence Technology and Autism - Rosalind Picard
1:00 PM – Alliant Energy-Lee Liu Auditorium, Howe Hall - Rosalind Picard is the author of Affective Computing, a book instrumental in starting a new field by that name. She is teaching machines to sense and respond more intelligently to people's emotions and to behave in ways that make more expressive communication possible. Picard is founder and director of the Affective Computing Research Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Laboratory, codirector of the Things That Think Consortium, and leader of the new and growing Autism Communication Technology Initiative at MIT. She holds a PhD in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Part of the Women in Human Computer Interaction Series and the Women in STEM Series.

Saturday, 19 Sep 2009

Failure Is Not An Option - Apollo 13 Astronaut Fred Haise
7:00 PM – Stephens Auditorium, Iowa State Center - Admission Free - doors open at 6 p.m. - Astronaut Fred Haise served as the lunar module pilot during the ill-fated 1970 Apollo 13 space mission. Soon after, he survived another harrowing ordeal: in 1973, he was burned over 65 percent of his body following an aircraft crash during filming of the Pearl Harbor epic, Tora! Tora! Tora! Haise went on to become one of the first astronauts to pilot the space shuttle in test missions. He was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame on October 4, 1997. Haise will use NASA footage of the Apollo 13 flight during his presentation. Join us for an autographing session in the Celebrity Café immediately following the lecture. Books will be available for purchase. Part of Engineers' Week 2009.

Thursday, 17 Sep 2009

Global Hopscotch: The Borderless World and the Search for Home - Rekha Basu
8:00 PM – Sun Room, 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 byline has appeared in the New York Times, USA Today, The International Herald Tribune and The Nation among other publications. 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. Part of the Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities Series: Iowa in the Global Community.

Torture, Detention and the Rule of Law: A Panel Discussion
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Clark Wolf is director of the Bioethics Program, and much of his published work is in political and legal philosophy, including a forthcoming project covering torture and human rights. He will lead a discussion with Alex Tuckness, associate professor in the Department of Political Science, and Ben Stone, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa. The American Civil Liberties Union recently won a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit forcing the release of a report providing a detailed description of torture and abuse of detainees. A Constitution Day Event and part of the World Affair Series.