Search For Lectures

A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things
6:00 PM – 3560 Memorial Union - Nature, money, work, care, food, energy, and lives: these are the seven things that have made our world and will shape its future. In making these things cheap, modern commerce has transformed, governed, and devastated Earth. Based on the latest research in political ecology, together with histories of colonialism, indigenous struggles, slave revolts, and other rebellions and uprisings, Raj Patel will demonstrate the cost it takes to make the world cheap and safe for capitalism. At a time of crisis in all seven cheap things, innovative and systemic thinking is urgently required. A range of social movements have already proposed radical new ways to value the planet and its webs of life and care for a turbulent twenty-first century.

37 Words: Title IX and 50 Years of Fighting Sex Discrimination
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Mary Louise Smith Lecture Sherry Boschert is an award-winning journalist and author of 37 Words: Title IX and Fifty Years of Fighting Sex Discrimination, a history of Title IX, the law that prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded education. Among her many honors, she received a Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for her efforts to promote equity within the news industry. After forty years in the San Francisco Bay Area, she now lives in New Hampshire. Half a century of legal battles and social backlash revolve around a law that girls and women wield to demand fairness in education — a law called Title IX. 37 Words is the first book to tell the complete history of Title IX through the gutsy people behind it, from women denied jobs at the law’s beginnings to students struggling against sexual assault today. Their intersecting narratives offer a timeless playbook for anyone who is horrified by current attacks on women’s rights and is wondering what to do about them.

Let's Talk About Pets
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Dr. Temple Grandin is a prominent author and speaker on both autism and animal behavior. Today she is a professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University. She also has a successful career consulting on both livestock handling equipment design and animal welfare. She has been featured on NPR (National Public Radio) and a BBC Special – "The Woman Who Thinks Like a Cow". She has also appeared on national TV shows such as Larry King Live, 20/20, 60 Minutes, Fox and Friends, and she has a 2010 TED talk. Articles about Dr. Grandin have appeared in Time Magazine, The New York Times, Discover Magazine, Forbes, and USA Today. HBO made an Emmy Award-winning movie about her life and she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016.

George Washington Carver Day of Recognition Program
5:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Celebrate Iowa's first George Washington Carver Day of Recognition! This program will feature notable speakers including: Dr. Kenneth M. Quinn, former U.S. ambassador to Cambodia and president emeritus of The World Food Prize Foundation Dr. Dan Robinson, dean of ISU's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Dr. Wendy Wintersteen, ISU President Dr. Olga Bolden-Tiller, dean of Tuskegee University's College of Agriculture, Environment, and Nutrition Sciences Marsha Kelliher, president of Simpson College Dewayne Goldmon, senior advisor for racial equity to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Simon Estes, internationally renown opera singer and the F. Wendell Miller Distinguished Artist in Residence at ISU's Department of Music and Theatre A free and open reception will be begin at 5pm with foods inspired by Dr. Carver. The program will begin at 5:30pm and conclude at 7pm with free ice cream from ISU Creamery. This event will be recorded and available for two weeks on the Lectures website at https://www.lectures.iastate.edu/recordings/available-recordings Please allow 2-3 days for the Lecture to be edited, captioned and posted.

Messages: Artist Lecture by Joyce J. Scott
4:00 PM – Virtual on Zoom - Joyce J. Scott is a dynamic artist, educator, and performer whose beautifully intricate beadwork sculptures tell the stories of her world. Join University Museums to learn how her art on view in the Brunnier Art Museum special exhibition, Messages: Joyce J. Scott, challenges stereotypes and confronts many difficult subjects through the use of glass beads. Zoom meeting information: Please click this URL to start or join. https://iastate.zoom.us/j/91971098973 Or, go to https://iastate.zoom.us/join and enter meeting ID: 919 7109 8973

Tearing Hatred From the Sky
6:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Martin Luther King, Jr. 2023 Keynote Bree Newsome rallies your spirit with her impassioned message about racial equality and illustrates how, with courage, zeal and the support of others, ordinary people can make an extraordinary difference. This contemporary civil rights icon first garnered national attention for her daring act of peaceful disobedience in June 2015. Following the brutal murder of nine black parishioners at Mother Emmanuel Church in Charleston, S.C., Bree climbed the flagpole at the South Carolina statehouse and pulled down the Confederate Battle flag as a protest against racist symbolism. Her arrest galvanized public opinion and led to the permanent removal of the flag. As a recognized and celebrated voice on the topics of injustice and racial discrimination, Bree brings to light the importance of leadership development in building and sustaining social movements. Also an accomplished filmmaker and musician, Bree skillfully outlines the relationship between activism and art, and captivates audiences as she describes in cinematic detail the heroic gestures of ordinary people on the front lines of activism.

DECKS: A Framework to Understand and Evaluate Game Mechanics
6:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Dr. Sercan Sengun is a researcher, teacher, and game designer, exploring phenomena at the intersections of video game studies, gamer communities, cultural informatics, virtual identities, and interactive narratives. He is currently the Harold Boyd Endowed Assistant Professor of Creative Technologies (Game Design) at Illinois State University and a research affiliate for MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality and MIT IDSS (Institute for Data, Systems, and Society) within the Antiracism, Games, and Immersive Media ICSR Project Team. This lecture will introduce a game design framework called DECKS (Short for Decisions versus Chance and Knowledge versus Skills) that builds upon the findings of previous research (see Adams, 2014; Schell, 2008; Rouse III, 2004). DECKS Framework presents theoretical and creative approaches to placing traditional game mechanics on two separate conceptual axes through questioning the actions taken by the players during gameplay. The framework helps game designers to understand game mechanics, foresee their effects on players, and come up with new and innovative ones on their own.

Material Alchemy
5:30 PM – 2019 Morrill Hall - Join Minnesota-based artist Harriet Bart for the opening of her solo exhibition Harriet Bart: Material Alchemy in the Christian Petersen Art Museum. The event will begin with an artist talk discussing the evolution of the artist’s practice over the last 50 years, to be followed by an opening reception of the exhibition. Artist Talk: 5:30pm (in the auditorium, 2019 Morrill Hall) Reception: 6:30-7:30pm

Physical Activity Is an Underused Resource for COVID-19 Pandemic
6:30 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - James F. Sallis, Ph.D is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health at University of California San Diego and Professorial Fellow at Australian Catholic University, Melbourne. He was trained in psychology and behavioral epidemiology. His health improvement programs have been studied and used in health care settings, schools, universities, and companies. His current research interests are promoting physical activity and understanding policy and environmental influences on physical activity, nutrition, and obesity. He has authored over 800 scientific publications that have been cited more than 200,000 times (GoogleScholar). He is currently focusing on getting research used to create healthier cities. During the pandemic he has been actively advocating for greater attention to, and application of, physical activity’s benefits. Dr. Sallis is Past-President of Society of Behavioral Medicine, member of the US National Academy of Medicine, and has won numerous national and international awards.

Science and Engineering Research on Clean Energy: For the Sake of Our Grandchildren
7:30 PM – South Ballroom, Memorial Union - To attack and, hopefully, to reverse greenhouse gas (GHG) growth, the critical but formidable goal of net zero GHG emissions by 2050 must be reached. This will require major efforts from across our society, especially a “leap of faith” by all the world’s economies. From the latest IPCC report, it is becoming increasingly apparent that we must do this for the health and well-being of our own children and grandchildren, if we want to help them avoid predictable climate disasters. Therefore, we professionals in the science and engineering community must make our best efforts to work on important GHG emission challenges to make the economic leap to green technologies more pragmatic and palatable. Recent analysis shows that there are huge market opportunities that can arrive with clean energy transitions, particularly if several key science, engineering, and overall technology barriers are overcome. Iver Anderson earned his BS in Metallurgical Engineering in 1975 from Michigan Tech. Anderson went on to earn his MS and PhD in Metallurgical Engineering from University of Wisconsin-Madison. After completing his studies in 1982, he joined the Metallurgy Branch of the US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC. His career path has led him to a position as senior metallurgist at Ames Laboratory (USDOE) and adjunct professor in the Materials Science and Engineering department at Iowa State University. He is a fellow of the American Powder Metallurgy Institute, ASM International, TMS, and the National Academy of Inventors, as well as a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Anderson is highly regarded for his research accomplishments in the area of powder metallurgy and rapid solidification, and its implementation into new and innovative magnetic materials, structural components, lightweight, and porous materials. Another research focus has been in metallurgical joining in electronic assembly, in brazing, and in welding, as well as in ceramic joining. These contributions and innovations have led to over 265 publications and 45 patents.