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Of Men and Marshes: A Tribute to Ecologist Paul Errington - James Pritchard and Matthew Sivils
3:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Faculty and students honor the life, work, and memory of the ecologist and Iowa State professor Paul L. Errington. Errington was internationally recognized for his work on the population phenomena of vertebrates, especially fur and game species. He became a staff member at Iowa State University in 1932, the same year he received his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin, and was a professor of zoology at Iowa State at the time of his death in 1962. He was the author of four books, including Of Predation and Life and Of Men and Marshes. The tribute will be led by James Pritchard, Departments of Landscape Architecture and Natural Resource Ecology and Management, and Matthew Sivils, Department of English, and include short readings from Errington’s work. Part of the Symposium on Wildness, Wilderness, and the Creative Imagination.

The Artist as Environmental Activist - Annick Smith, David T. Hanson, Shannon Ramsey, Clark Wolf
1:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - The artist is trained to watch, listen, observe, and report, but what are the obligations of artists to act, agitate, and intervene? Artists and environmentalists David Hanson, Shannon Ramsey, Annick Smith and Clark Wolf will discuss how they came to a point of understanding and reconciliation with issues of environment in their work. Writer and photographer David Hanson taught for over a decade at the Rhode Island School of Design in the department of Photography and Landscape Architecture. Shannon Ramsey is the President, CEO and cofounder of Trees Forever, a national non-profit organization based in Marion, Iowa. Annick Smith is a writer, editor, and filmmaker. She coproduced the movie A River Runs through It, and her latest book is The Wide Open: Prose, Poetry, and Photographs of the Prairie. Clark Wolf is the Bioethics Program Director and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Iowa State. The conversation will be moderated by Iowa State associate professor creative writing Stephen Pett. Part of the Symposium on Wildness, Wilderness and the Creative Imagination.

Writing across International Boundaries - Jennifer Kwon Dobbs and Heather Derr-Smith
10:30 AM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - What are the responsibilities of authors who travel internationally and write on global themes? Is it possible for authors to see the world and represent it beyond the limitations of their own cultural blinders? Poets Jennifer Kwon Dobbs and Heather Derr-Smith share their stories and writings about the environmental degradation and political upheaval they’ve witnessed around the world. Jennifer Kwon Dobbs was born in Won Ju Si, South Korea. Her debut collection, Paper Pavilion (2007), received the White Pine Press Poetry Prize. She is an assistant professor of creative writing at St. Olaf College and lives in Minneapolis. Heather Derr-Smith received her undergraduate degree in art history from the University of Virginia and her M.F.A. in poetry from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her first poetry collection, Each End of the World, features poems about the Bosnian war in the 1990s. Part of the Symposium on Wildness, Wilderness and the Creative Imagination.

Hiddenscapes: Glaciers and Their Impact on the Iowa Landscape - Kathleen Woida and Barbara Haas
9:00 AM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - State geologist Kathleen Woida and Iowa State creative writing professor Barbara Haas will explore the impact of glacial activity on the landscape of Iowa. While no one witnessed the extraordinary process that formed our contemporary Iowa landscape, it is possible to piece together parts of the dramatic geological events through examination of bedrock and sub-soil evidence. Through slide show imagery, scientific data, music, and creative writing, Haas and Woida will suggest and evoke the shape and movement of the hiddenscape of Iowa glaciology. Part of the Symposium on Wildness, Wilderness, and the Creative Imagination.

Who Owns the American West? A Reading and Conversation with William Kittredge
7:00 PM – Sun Room/South Ballroom, Memorial Union - Author William Kittredge has for years been a prominent voice in the literature of the American West, with writings that explore the theme of sustainability and its relationship to culture, history, and human nature. His many books include a memoir, Hole in the Sky; two collections of essays, Owning It All and Who Owns the West as well as a collection of short stories and the novel The Willow Field. He was coproducer of the movie A River Runs Through It with Annick Smith. They also coedited The Last Best Place: A Montana Anthology. Kittredge taught at the University of Montana for twenty-nine years, retiring as Regents Professor of English and Creative Writing in 1997. The conversation will be moderated by Benjamin Percy. Part of the Symposium on Wildness, Wilderness, and the Creative Imagination.

Wasteland: Meditations on a Ravaged Landscape - David T. Hanson
2:00 PM – Brunnier Art Museum, Scheman Building - David T. Hanson will discuss photographic works from his monograph, Waste Land: Meditations on a Ravaged Landscape, several of which are featured in the Brunnier exhibition, Imaging a Shattered Earth: Contemporary Photography and the Environmental Debate. Hanson’s photographs portray some of the hidden environmental hazards of the United States—chemical wastes, the exhausted land resulting from coal mining, and various other consequences of industrialization and militarization. The Waste Land series is composed of triptychs, each work consisting of a geological survey map, an aerial photograph taken by Hanson, and a description of the site supplied by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). These works expose the most polluted places in the United States, sites first corrupted by industrialization, then neglected by legislators. Part of the Symposium on Wildness, Wilderness, and the Creative Imagination.

Writers Grow Here: Flyaway "Home Voices" Award
1:00 PM – Brunnier Art Museum, Scheman Building - Writers in the MFA Program in Creative Writing and Environment will read from their creative work featuring themes of environmental imagination. The readers were selected from a competitive pool of submissions by the staff of Flyway, a journal of writing and environment in which the top winner’s work will also be published in 2009. Part of the Symposium on Wildness, Wilderness, and the Creative Imagination.

Civility on Campus - Kathy Obear
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Kathy Obear is the president of Alliance for Change and founding faculty of The Social Justice Training Institute. She worked in residence life at several universities before starting her consulting practice, devoted to organization development, managing diversity, and conflict resolution. Obear’s presentation focuses on improving communication skills among students when different viewpoints are presented in the classroom. She works to create inclusive environments that leverage the creativity, diversity, and talent of all students. Obear will also participate in the Social Justice Summit, coordinated by the Student Activities Center, on Friday, February 6.

Responsible Design for Our Global Community - Ricardo Gomes
7:30 PM – Kocimski Auditorium, College of Design - Ricardo Gomes is an advocate for culturally relevant and socially responsible design. He runs the Design Center for Global Needs, a nonprofit international research and development center that promotes design solutions to such issues as health care, the aging, community development and sustainability. A former Fulbright Scholar in Kenya, his experience has included design for developing countries and sustainable design. Gomes is professor and chair of the Department of Design and Industry at San Francisco State University. He received his MFA in Industrial Design for Low-Income Economies from the University of California, Los Angeles. Part of the College of Design 30th Anniversary Celebration.

A Dream Fulfilled: The Saga of George Washington Carver - AN OPERA
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - ADMISSION FREE!! - Celebrate the life of the agricultural pioneer and Iowa hero George Washington Carver with this OPERA Iowa performance. Dr. Carver was the first African American student and faculty member at Iowa State University. The opera focuses on the key events that would shape the destiny of this great scientist, educator, and humanitarian. Composed by Iowa’s own Dr. Michael Patterson, A Dream Fulfilled was commissioned by Des Moines Metro Opera in cooperation with the Iowa State Historical Society.