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The Hidden Destruction of the Appalachian Mountains - Dave Cooper
5:30 PM – Pearson Hall 1115 - Dave Cooper is a resident of Lexington, Kentucky. He graduated from Vanderbilt University and spent twenty years working in industry as a mechanical engineer. After seeing a mountaintop removal mine in operation, he became a full-time activist. Cooper is a member of the Sierra Club and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, and worked for a year as a coalfield organizer for the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC). He is currently on a national speaking tour to educate people on the impacts of mountaintop removal on coalfield residents, communities and the environment.

Learning from the Civil Rights Movement: Current Concerns of African Americans in Iowa - Charles McDew
2:00 PM – Black Cultural Center - Charles McDew, one of the principal architects in the founding of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) of 1960, will discuss his experiences during the Civil Rights movement as well as current issues concerning African Americans in Iowa. SNCC was a fundamental organization of the American Civil Rights Movement, playing a major role in the Freedom Rides, the 1963 March on Washington and Mississippi Freedom Summer. McDew was the chairman of SNCC from 1961 to 1964. He recently retired from Metropolitan State University in Minneapolis.

Geo-Politics, Human Rights, and You - John Perkins
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - John Perkins detailed his former role as an economic hit man in a book by the same name. His job was to convince Third World countries to accept enormous loans for infrastructure development - loans that were much larger than needed - and to guarantee that the development projects were contracted to U.S. corporations like Halliburton and Bechtel. He contends that once these countries were saddled with huge debts, the U.S. government and the international aid agencies allied with it were able to control these economies and to ensure that oil and other resources were channeled to serve the interests of building a global empire. In his new book, The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth About Global Corruption, he draws on interviews with other hit men, jackals, reporters, government officials, and activists, to examine the current geopolitical crisis. Part of the World Affairs Series.

Breaking the Creative Barriers between Art and Science: A Panel Discussion
7:00 PM – Pioneer Room, Memorial Union - A discussion with artists Dennis Dake, Barbara Walton, Dean Biechler and Ingrid Lilligren, and scientists Tong Wang and Paul Canfield from the exhibit Breaking the Creative Barriers between Art and Science, currently on display in the Pioneer Room. The show features collaborative work created by teams of ISU artists and scientists. The exhibit showcases the artists' creations and includes posters summarizing the scientific research that informs each artwork, illustrating how the sciences are fertile ground for creative and artistic imagination. The exhibit is on display through November 12, 2007.

African Ambassadors and Leaders Speak about Poverty, Food Security, Health, Education and Governance in Africa
7:30 PM – Lush Auditorium, Kildee Hall 125 - A panel of top diplomats and distinguished leaders from across Africa will discuss poverty, food security, HIV/AIDs, information and computer technologies and nurturing democratic reforms. The event is a unique opportunity to hear from African leaders, themselves, about their efforts to address the challenges of the continent. Invited speakers include H.E. Hawa Ndilowe, Ambassador of Malawi; H.E. Peter Ogego, Ambassador of Kenya; H.E. Amadou Ba, Ambassador of Senegal; H.E. Keerteecoomar Ruhee, Ambassador of Mauritius; Hon. Amina Salum Ali, Africa Union Ambassador; Andrew Makenete, ABSA Bank, South Africa; Dr. Lindiwe Sibanda, Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network; Michael Kijjambu, 1000 Cups of Coffee, Uganda; and Mamadou Diarrah, First Secretary, Embassy of Mali. This event is being organized by Iowa State's African Studies Forum, in conjunction with the World Food Prize Organization's 2007 Norman E. Bourlaug International Symposium. Part of the World Affairs Series.

A Longing to Understand - A One-Woman Play performed by Jane Cox
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Jane Cox is a professor and stage director in the Iowa State University Theatre Program. She has been involved with over two hundred-fifty productions as an actress, designer, or director. Her one-woman shows have been performed in over twenty states as well as at the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian. "The Longing to Understand" is the story of Barbara McClintock, the maize geneticist who discovered mobile genetic elements called transposons, or "jumping genes," in corn. In 1983, at the age of eighty-one, McClintock was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology for this work. Part of the Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities Series "The Book of Life in a Genomic Age."

The Village at the Other End of the Pipeline: Imagining the Future of the Global Energy Economy - Lisa Margonelli
6:00 PM – Alliant Energy-Lee Liu Auditorium, Howe Hall - Journalist Lisa Margonelli writes about the global culture and economy of energy. She has written for Slate, CNN, NPR, The Boston Globe, and The Wall Street Journal. Margonelli is a graduate of Yale University and is currently a fellow at the New America Foundation. Her book Oil on the Brain: Travels in the World of Petroleum will be published in February 2007. Technology, Globalization, and Culture Series.

Making Peace Between Heaven and Earth: A Faith-Based Approach to Social and Environmental Transformation - Susan Drake Emmerich
8:00 PM – Pioneer Room, Memorial Union - Susan Drake Emmerich is a nationally known speaker on faith-based environmental stewardship and the founder and CEO of Emmerich Environmental Consulting. She founded and directed the nonprofit Tangier Watermen's Stewardship for the Chesapeake and helped produce the Telly and Aurora Award-winning PBS documentary on the Tangier Watermen's Initiative. As a U.S. negotiator she was involved in the 1992 Earth Summit, Biological Diversity Convention, Global Climate Convention, and International Coral Reef Initiative. She has also worked for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the World Bank, EPA, and Department of Interior and served as the director of the East Coast office of the Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies and as vice president of the Au Sable Institute's board of directors. Currently, Emmerich is an assistant professor at Trinity Christian College, where she teaches environmental science and directs an environmental research partnership between Trinity Christian College and the Lake Katherine Nature Preserve. Part of the Areopagus Lecture Series.

In Good Conscience - A Film
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - The film In Good Conscience chronicles the true story of Sister Jeannine Gramick, who is defying a Vatican edict that she shut down her compassionate ministry to gay and lesbian Catholics and silence herself permanently on the subject of homosexuality. Her battle takes her all the way to Rome where she attempts an audience with her key adversary over the years - none other than Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - the Inquisitor, who would become Pope Benedict XVI.

Globalization: Threats and Opportunities - Tom Vilsack
6:30 PM – Alliant Energy-Lee Liu Auditorium, Howe Hall - Tom Vilsack was first elected Governor of Iowa in 1998 and was reelected to a second four-year term in 2002. On November 30, 2006, he formally launched his candidacy for the Democratic Party's nomination for president in the 2008 election but ended his bid on February 23, 2007. In May 2007, Vilsack joined the Des Moines office of the Minneapolis-based law firm Dorsey & Whitney and is of counsel. Vilsack received a Bachelor's degree in 1972 from Hamilton College in New York. He received the J.D. in 1975 from Albany Law School. Technology, Globalization, and Culture Series.