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Past Events

Friday, 10 Oct 2008

Foreign Policy and the Economy - Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez
1:30 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Ralph Nader, Peace and Freedom Party presidential candidate, and his vice presidential candidate, Matt Gonzalez, will discuss the current economic crisis and U.S. foreign policy concerns. Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer, and author and has been named by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential Americans in the Twentieth Century. For more than four decades, he has exposed problems and organized millions of citizens into more than one hundred public interest groups advocating solutions. He led the movement to establish the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and was instrumental in enacting the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Motor Vehicle Safety Act, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and countless other pieces of important consumer legislation. Nader is a graduate of University and received an LL.B from Harvard Law School. Part of the 2008 Campaign Series which has the goal of providing the university community with opportunities to question candidates or their surrogates before election day.

Thursday, 9 Oct 2008

Elections 2008: A Dialogue with James Campbell and James Lindsay
7:30 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Two prominent political scientists will analyze the upcoming presidential and congressional elections. James Campbell is professor and chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Buffalo. He served previously as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow and as a program director at the National Science Foundation. He is the author of The Presidential Pulse of Congressional Elections, Cheap Seats, and The American Campaign and coeditor of Before the Vote. James Lindsay is the Tom Slick Chair for International Affairs and director of the Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a leading authority on the American foreign policymaking process and the domestic politics of American foreign policy. He was previously the vice president, director of studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair at the Council on Foreign Relations.

The Impact of Groundwater Seepage on Coastal Ecosystems - Adina Paytan
7:00 PM – South Ballroom, Memorial Union - Adina Paytan, assistant professor of geological and environmental sciences at Stanford University, is a detective who searches for sources of beach pollution. She travels widely to different shorelines, measuring and detecting chronic coastal pollution. Her theory is that ground water discharging into our coastal waters may be as equally important as urban runoff. Knowing the source of coastal water pollution is important to economics as well as ecology to ensure adequate conservation of our coastlines. These areas not only contain favorite swimming beaches, but also house coral reefs, sandy beach ecosystems, marine nurseries, and unique habitats such as mangroves and salt marshes.

Why Family and Work Conflict and What to Do About It – Joan Williams
3:30 PM – Pioneer Room, Memorial Union - Joan Williams, Distinguished Professor at Hastings Law School, University of California, is an expert on work-life conflict and the author of Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What to Do About It. She has played a leading role in documenting workplace bias against mothers and “maternal wall bias.” Her current work focuses on social psychology and on how work/family conflict affects families across the social spectrum. Williams earned a B.A. in history from Yale University, her master's degree in City Planning from MIT, and her J.D. from Harvard Law School.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Policy: Science, Mathematics, Higher Education and the Rest of Us - Patricia Maloney
12:30 PM – 408 Curtiss Hall - Patricia Maloney is president of Higher Education Consulting and Research, and is a researcher and practitioner with a background in higher education policy and management at public and private colleges and universities. She has served as a project manager for the Learning Productivity Network at the University at Buffalo and the NSF-funded Change and Sustainability Project of the Math Science Partnerships. She has also managed the Presidents’ Network for the Education of Teachers and was director of the National Postsecondary Education Cooperative. Maloney has taught at Drexel and George Mason Universities, and is currently engaged in research on STEM college faculty engagement in K-16 partnerships. She received her Ph.D. in higher education at the University at Buffalo. A poster fair and light refreshments will precede the talk at 12:00 noon in 142 Curtiss Hall.

Wednesday, 8 Oct 2008

Building Sculpture on Location: A Melding of Design and Community - Patrick Dougherty
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Patrick Dougherty combines his carpentry skill with his love for nature to build large-scale, onsite temporary sculptures out of tree saplings. In 1982 his first work was included in the North Carolina Biennial Artists' Exhibition sponsored by the North Carolina Museum of Art. The following year, he had his first one-person show. His work quickly evolved from single pieces on conventional pedestals to monumental-scale environments that required saplings by the truckloads. During the last two decades, he has built over 150 works throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. Dougherty will be building a "habitat-sized" work in Ada Hayden Park for the Ames Public Art Commission. Part of the College of Design 30th Anniversary Celebration.

Monday, 6 Oct 2008

Language, Culture and Respecting a Family's Choice - Susan Moore
7:00 PM – Pioneer Room, Memorial Union - Susan M. Moore is Professor and Director of Clinical Education and Services in the Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences Department at the University of Colorado in Boulder. She studies issues of particular interest to teachers, care providers, and faculty that prepare future professionals and personnel to work in these fields. Moore addresses the ways families make choices about what languages their children speak at home and at school; how to prepare future teachers and current educators to support and inform this decision-making process, and whether these choices should be different for a child with an identified disability; and the long-term cultural consequences of preserving -- or losing -- the languages of one’s heritage. Part of the Barbara E. (Mound) Hansen Early Childhood Lecture Series

Men Ending Rape - Keith Edwards
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Keith Edwards uses dialogue, activities, and a multi-media presentation to encourage college men and women to become involved in changing a culture on campus that encourages or condones rape. Men are described as the perpetrators in 99% of single-victim rapes, yet most rape prevention efforts focus on what women can do. This presentation identifies for men what they have to gain from ending campus rape. Keith Edwards is director of campus life at Macalester College, and founder and director of Men Ending Rape, an organization committed to ending rape by encouraging men to play a significant role in ending the perpetuation of a campus rape culture.

Nazis, Commies, and Capitalists, Oh My! German Culture from 1933 to the Present - Roundtable Discussion
4:00 PM – Gallery, Memorial Union - The Iowa State Visual Culture Club will host a roundtable discussion on modern German culture at the conclusion of the German Art and Culture After 1933 Conference. The daylong interdisciplinary conference will address such topics as painting, photography, women in Nazi poster art, architecture in East and West Germany, the small film industry, and East German literature and theater. It brings together scholars from across the country who are redefining the field of German Studies in the wake of the collapse of Communism. Iowa State participants include Kevin Amidon, associate professor of German; Dan Krier, assistant professor of sociology; and April Eisman, assistant professor of art history. No pre-registration is required to attend the conference, which runs from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the Gallery, Memorial Union.

Thursday, 2 Oct 2008

The Definition of Manhood - Rasheed Ali Cromwell
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Attorney Rasheed Ali Cromwell has been involved in leadership development and the mentoring of young males throughout his professional career. He is founder and Executive Director of The Harbor Institute, an educational organization that empowers students to excel.