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Past Events

Friday, 7 Mar 2008

Running Brave: An Olympic Champion Honors His Lakota Heritage - Billy Mills
12:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Billy Mills is the cofounder and national spokesperson for Running Strong for American Indian Youth. An Oglala Lakota (Sioux) who was raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, he earned a track scholarship to the University of Kansas and later served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps. Billy Mills came from behind to win the gold medal in the 10k race at the 1964 Olympics, and he is still the only American ever to win a gold medal in that event. He was the inspiration for the movie Running Brave. The movie stars Robbie Benson and chronicles the story of Mills's life on the reservation and the many obstacles he overcame to become an Olympic champion. Mills is the coauthor of Wokini: A Lakota Journey to Happiness and Understanding. ISCORE Keynote Address. For more information about attending the Iowa State Conference on Race and Ethnicity, go to: http://www.admissions.iastate.edu/iscore...ation.html

Thursday, 6 Mar 2008

The Simpsons Family Values - Mike Reiss
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Mike Reiss, writer and producer of The Simpsons, has won four Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award for his work on the wacky animated series that has kept America laughing for more than a decade. The television show earned TIME Magazine's vote as "the greatest TV show of the twentieth century." During Reiss's fifteen years with the show, he penned a dozen scripts and produced over two hundred episodes. His talk takes the audience inside the lives of Springfield's first family - revealing how The Simpsons was almost canceled before it hit the air, secret trivia of the show, and dealings with network censors. Part of the National Affairs Series: Can Laughter Save America?

The Figure in Contemporary Ceramics - Lisa Clague
5:00 PM – Kocimski Auditorium, College of Design - Lisa Clague received her BFA from the Cleveland Art Institute, where she studied with Judith Salomon and Bill Brouillard. Her MFA degree is from the California College of Arts and Crafts, where she worked with Viola Frey, Art Nelson and Dennis Gallagher. Her first solo exhibition was in 1994 at the Udinotti Gallery in Scottsdale. Since that time she has had numerous solo and group exhibitions, including at the John Elder Gallery in New York City. Clague is currently represented by the John Natsoulous Gallery in California. The Virginia A. Groot Foundation recognized her achievements in ceramic sculpture, and she was recently invited to the 3rd World Ceramic Biennale in Korea.

Tuesday, 4 Mar 2008

Emerging from Obscurity: The Ioway Nation in the New Millennium - Lance Foster
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Lance Foster, a member of the Ioway Nation, is a traditional storyteller, artist, and involved in the preservation of the Ioway language. He has held positions with the National Park Service in New Mexico, Alaska, and Hawaii and is a contributor to The Worlds between Two Rivers: Perspectives on American Indians in Iowa, Native Americans in the 20th Century, and Ancient Muses. Foster earned a Master's degree in anthropology as well as a Master's of Landscape Architecture from Iowa State. He currently lives in Helena, Montana. The 2008 Richard Thompson Memorial Lecture and part of the Iowa State 150th Anniversary Alumni Lecture Series.

Monday, 3 Mar 2008

Lost Nation: The Ioway - Documentary Film and Panel Discussion
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Lost Nation explores the dramatic saga of the Ioway Indians from their ancestors - known as the Oneota - to their present day locations in Kansas and Oklahoma. It tells the dramatic true story of two brothers' struggle to save their people from inevitable American conquest, and the Ioway's current fight to reclaim and maintain their unique history and culture. Filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle are perhaps best known for their award-winning documentary Villisca: Living with a Mystery, which won Best Documentary at the 2006 CRI Film Festival. The 50-minute screening of Lost Nation will be followed by a panel discussion with the filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle; Lance Foster, a member of the Ioway tribe; and David Gradwohl, professor emeritus of anthropology at Iowa State.

Saturday, 1 Mar 2008

Spirituality on Campus - Arthur Chickering and Jon Dalton
11:00 AM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - According to a national study of college freshmen, there is a growing interest among students in dealing with issues of faith, spirituality, meaning, and purpose, and many leaders in the field of student development argue that institutions of higher education need to find ways to integrate discussions regarding religion and spirituality into campus culture. Arthur Chickering and Jon Dalton will serve as the featured presenters of this conference, which will address spirituality as it applies to research, theory, curriculum, and student affairs at the university. Arthur Chickering serves as Special Assistant to the President of Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont. He is the author of many publications, including Education and Identity and has received numerous awards for his work in the field of college student development. Jon Dalton is an associate professor in educational leadership and director of the Hardee Center for Leadership and Ethics at Florida State University. He directs the annual institute on college student values that focuses on moral and civic education in college student learning and development. Dalton and Chickering coauthored the recently published Encouraging Authenticity and Spirituality in Higher Education. Keynote address for the Creating an Inclusive Campus Conference.

Friday, 29 Feb 2008

Remembering Alex the African Grey Parrot: More than Just a Birdbrain - Irene Pepperberg
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Irene Pepperberg is an adjunct professor of psychology at Brandeis University and a research associate at Harvard University. She studies Grey parrots, focusing on how the cognitive and communicative abilities of these birds compare to those of great apes, marine mammals, and young children. She is best known for her work with the famous African Grey parrot Alex, who passed away in April 2006. Alex possessed more than one hundred vocal labels for different objects, actions, and colors; could count object sets up to the total number six; exhibited math skills that were considered advanced in animal intelligence; and was learning to read the sounds of various letters. Alex's accomplishments proved that African Grey parrots have an intelligence far beyond what was previously thought before his decades-long work with Pepperberg.

Thursday, 28 Feb 2008

Say Something: Poetry Slam with E. G. Bailey
7:00 PM – Maintenance Shop, Memorial Union - This event, featuring poet E. G. Bailey, will include an open microphone session where attendees are encouraged to speak poetry. Bailey is a poet originally from Liberia who now lives in the Twin Cities and has cofounded several spoken word and music collectives. He is the owner of a music label named Speak Easy Records. Musician and singer Kate Kennedy will also perform. The event is sponsored by UHURU, a student-run magazine that brings a multicultural perspective to politics, art, music, food, love, and health.

Tuesday, 26 Feb 2008

Life without Ed: How One Woman Declared Independence from Her Eating Disorder - Jenni Schaefer
7:30 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Jenni Schaefer often says that she has never been married, but she is happily divorced. A recovered bulimic, she coauthored Life Without Ed with her psychotherapist, Thom Rutledge, who taught her to treat her eating disorder as a relationship rather than an illness or condition. Schaefer actually named her anorexia/bulimia "Ed," an acronym for "eating disorder." Jenni Schaefer is a consultant with the Center for Change in Orem, Utah, and a contributing author to Chicken Soup for the Recovering Soul. She is a regular guest on national radio and television, including appearances on Dr. Phil and Entertainment Tonight. Her work has been recognized in national publications, including the Chicago Tribune, Cosmopolitan, Washington Times, and Woman's World. National Eating Disorders Awareness Week.

Monday, 25 Feb 2008

The Color of Our Future - Farai Chideya
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Farai Chideya is a multimedia journalist who has worked in print, television, online, and radio and is currently host of National Public Radio's News & Notes. Chideya has been a correspondent for ABC News, anchored the prime time program Pure Oxygen on the Oxygen women's channel, and contributed commentaries to CNN, Fox, MSNBC, and BET. She got her start as a researcher and reporter at Newsweek magazine. She is the author of Don't Believe the Hype: Fighting Cultural Misinformation About African Americans and The Color of Our Future. Chideya's newest book, Trust: Reaching the 100 Million Missing Voters, shows why half of Americans are cut out of the political system - and what we can do about it.