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From Grief and Joy We Sing: The Musical Rituals of Q'eros, Peru - A Documentary and Discussion with Holly Wissler
7:00 PM – 1213 Hoover Hall - Holly Wissler, a native of Iowa, has lived and worked in southern Peru for more than twenty years as a mountain trek leader. Her current research is with the Q'eros native people, who have made their home at 14,000 feet in the Andes Mountains. Wissler is a doctoral student in ethnomusicology at the Florida State University College of Music and was awarded a Fulbright Award to record, transcribe, and translate the Q'eros' indigenous music. The project is the first of its kind from the perspectives of gender roles, musical change and cultural adaptation. She will show and discuss her video documentary, "From Grief and Joy We Sing."

The Discovery of Life on Earth - David Hillis
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - David Hillis is an internationally recognized molecular and organismal biologist. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a previous MacArthur Foundation Fellow. Hillis has made major contributions to the study of biological diversity using molecular genetic techniques. He brings twenty-first-century technology to longstanding and fundamental questions in biology, such as Why are there so many kinds of organisms? How did this diversity come about? He is the author of a popular textbook on molecular systematics and has published more than 150 scholarly articles. He is currently the Alfred W. Roark Centennial Professor of Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin. The Annual Charles E. Bessey Lecture.

The International Evangelical Environmental Movement - Calvin DeWitt
8:00 PM – Pioneer Room, Memorial Union - Calvin DeWitt is a professor with the Nelson Center for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is the cofounder of the International Evangelical Environmental Network, a founding member and chair of the American Society of the Green Cross, chair of the advisory council for the Evangelical Campaign to Combat Global Warming and Climate Change, an advisor to the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, and president of the Academy of Evangelical Scientists and Ethicists. DeWitt has a B.A. in biology from Calvin College, an M.A. in biology from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Michigan. Part of the Areopagus Lecture Series.

Farmscape: Documenting the Changing Rural Environment - A Student Readers Theatre Production
10:45 AM – Maintenance Shop, Memorial Union - Iowa State creative writing students document the American farmscape through interviews with people involved in changes in how we grow our food and live our lives in the rural United States. You'll take delight in a sip of Zinfandel at a new winery and savor the taste of organic vegetables on a truck on its way to the local farmer's market. You'll make a stop at a bed and breakfast and Hispanic cultural center and gaze out the window at restored wetlands and prairie. You'll also suit up in protective clothing before entering a hog confinement and you'll watch chickens move quickly down a conveyor belt at an IBP slaughtering plant. You'll experience the David and Goliath story of a family farmer up against the economic forces of the 3,500-acre agribusiness operation next door. In the end, you'll understand that farming completely changed the ecosystem of the prairie. Part of the 4th Annual Symposium on Wildness, Wilderness, and the Creative Imagination.

What Can Wildlife Tell Us About Our Changing World? - A Panel Discussion
9:00 AM – Pioneer Room, Memorial Union - Residents of Maine watch as their birdfeeders fill with migratory songbirds in February. Flowers that once bloomed only in the southern states now grow in Nebraska. Animals are extremely sensitive to changes in the Earth's environment. This panel of Iowa State faculty will discuss the changing behavior of a variety of animals and explain how they might be reflective of larger climate changes. Panelists from the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology (EEOB) and the Department of Natural Resource Ecology Management (NREM) include Diane Debinski, Julie Blanchong, Brent Danielson, Fred Janzen, and Lisa Schulte. Part of the 4th Annual Symposium on Wildness, Wilderness, and the Creative Imagination.

Earth, Animal, Oracle: Readings by Ven Begamudre and Sheryl St. Germain
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Ven Begamudré, a short story writer and novelist, was born in Bangalore, India, and immigrated to Canada with his family when he was six. He has an MFA in creative writing from Warren Wilson College in Asheville, NC, and has completed six writer-in-residence programs, including the Canada-Scotland Exchange. His most recent works include The Lightness Which Is Our World, Seen from Afar and a biography of Isaac Brock for young adults. He splits his time between Regina, Saskatchewan, and the island of Bali. Sheryl St. Germain, a native of New Orleans, currently directs the MFA program in Creative Writing at Chatham College, where she also teaches poetry and creative nonfiction. Her work has received several awards, including two NEA Fellowships, an NEH Fellowship and the William Faulkner Award for the personal essay. Her books include The Mask of Medusa, How Heavy the Breath of God, Swamp Songs and Let It Be a Dark Roux. Part of the 4th Annual Symposium on Wildness, Wilderness, and the Creative Imagination. Fiddle music by Ken Waldman and a slide show of photographs by writer and naturalist Paul Brooke will precede the readings at 7:30 p.m.

Plants and Animals in the Field, Oracles on the Page - Members of the Black Earth Institute
2:15 PM – Pioneer Room, Memorial Union - Members of the Black Earth Institute will discuss scientific work and observation of animals in the field. They will then examine the transformation of those animal images into both stereotype and oracular wisdom on the literary page. Their remarks will include the observation of grapes, pumpkins wolves, eagles and other creatures that have become important symbols in Native American stories, fairy tales, and Celtic and African mythology. The Black Earth Institute is a progressive think-tank dedicated to re-forging the links between art and spirit, earth and society. Participants include Cristina Eisenberg, Deborah Holton, Patricia Monaghan, and Mary Swander. Part of the 4th Annual Symposium on Wildness, Wilderness, and the Creative Imagination.

Poetry and Fiddle Tunes - Paul Brooke and Ken Waldman
1:00 PM – Pioneer Room, Memorial Union - Paul Brooke will read and show slides from his latest book of poetry, Light and Matter: Photographs and Poems of Iowa. Brooke previously worked as a biologist and naturalist in Alaska, and his writings draw on environmental issues and scientific observation. Brooke is an ISU alum (M.A., English) and currently an associate professor of English and chair of the Humanities Division at Grand View College in Des Moines. Ken Waldman has drawn on his twenty years in Alaska to produce poems, stories and fiddle tunes that combine into a performance uniquely his own. A former college professor, Waldman has had more than 400 poems and stories published in national journals and has worked full time since 1994 as Alaska's Fiddling Poet, performing at some of the nation's leading universities, festivals, arts centers, and clubs. Part of the 4th Annual Symposium on Wildness, Wilderness, and the Creative Imagination.

Books of Place and the Cartography of the Self - ISU Alumni Writers Roundtable
10:15 AM – Pioneer Room, Memorial Union - Four writers discussed their latest publications and explore both the physical and intellectual landscapes of their books - how and where the books were written as well as what effect setting or place has on character, persona, metaphors and imagery. Participating writers include Neelika Jayawardane, Deborah Holten, Michael McDermott, and Cristina Eisenberg. Following the roundtable, the writers will offer breakout discussion groups on various aspects of the process of writing. Part of the 4th Annual Symposium on Wildness, Wilderness, and the Creative Imagination and the Iowa State 150th Anniversary Alumni Lecture Series. Due to a blizzard and dangerous road conditions, ISU alums Anna Leahy, Linda Morganstein, and Richard Solly were unable to participate in this event as originally scheduled.

The Craft of Environmental Fiction - Brenda Peterson
9:00 AM – Pioneer Room, Memorial Union - Renowned nature writer Brenda Peterson will draw on examples from her novel Animal Heart in a discussion of how animals can become characters in fiction. The novel offers a captivating love story of people whose compassion for animals compels them into extraordinary acts of heroism. Peterson is the author of four novels, one of which, Duck and Cover, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. She began her career working for The New Yorker and then relocated to the Pacific Northwest. Her articles and essays have appeared in the New York Times, Sierra, Orion, and Utne Reader. Part of the 4th Annual Symposium on Wildness, Wilderness, and the Creative Imagination.