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Torture and the War on Terror - Jumana Musa
8:00 PM – Campanile Room, Memorial Union - Jumana Musa is the Advocacy Director for Domestic Human Rights and International Justice at Amnesty International, where she addresses the domestic and international impact of the Bush administration's "war on terror" on human rights. She was one of the first human rights attorneys allowed to travel to the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and serves as Amnesty International's legal observer at military commission proceedings on the base. Part of the World Affairs series.

Witness to Terror in Central America: Ron Hennessey, An Iowa Missionary's Experience and Lessons for Today - Thomas Melville
8:00 PM – South Ballroom, Memorial Union - Fr. Ron Hennessey from Ryan, Iowa, worked in Central America for thirty-five years and witnessed the State terror unleashed on civilians in the parishes where he served in Guatemala and El Salvador. The author of his story, Thomas Melville, will talk of Hennessey's life and the lessons for today.

How to Spend $50 Billion to Make the World a Better Place - A Panel Discussion
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Iowa State University Professor Peter Orazem (Economics) will summarize his recent presentation at a UN conference on prioritizing limited resources to end poverty. Professors Tony Smith (Philosophy), Robert Mazur (Sociology), and Francis Owusu (Community and Regional Planning) will also provide a range of perspectives on this important topic. Mary Sawyer (Religious Studies) will moderate. Audience members are invited to join in the discussion. Part of the World Affairs series.

Pop Culture, Politics and Writing - Steve Almond
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Steve Almond is the author of the short story collections The Evil B.B. Chow and My Life in Heavy Metal, the nonfiction book Candyfreak, and is the coauthor (with Julianna Baggott) of the novel Which Brings Me to You. He served as adjunct professor in creative writing at Boston College for five years until publishing an open letter of resignation in the Boston Globe on May 12, 2006, protesting the selection of Condoleezza Rice as the college's 2006 commencement guest speaker. His next book, a collection of essays, will be published by Random House in 2007.

Slip-sliding Away: Studying Glacier Movement and Rock Erosion beneath the Svartisen Ice Cap, Norway - Neal Iverson
8:00 PM – Gallery Room, Memorial Union - Neal R. Iverson, a Sigma Xi Lecturer, is a professor in the Department of Geological & Atmospheric Sciences at Iowa State University. In 2002 Iverson led a team of seven researchers to a spot seven hundred feet under the Svartisen Ice Cap in northern Norway to get a firsthand look at how modern glaciers move across rock and sediment - a first step toward understanding how glaciers have triggered climate change and shaped landscapes. Iverson's experiments, funded by the National Science Foundation, have been featured in the New York Times. In addition to his research, Iverson teaches undergraduate- and graduate-level courses in geomorphology and glacial geology.

U.S. Foreign Policy after the Mid-term Elections - A Panel Discussion
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Jim McCormick is author of American Foreign Policy and Process, coeditor of Domestic Sources of American Foreign Policy, and chair of the ISU Political Science Department. Richard Mansbach is the author and coauthor of a number of books, including The Global Puzzle: Issues and Actors in World Politics; Politics: Authority, Identities and Change; and The State, Conceptual Chaos, and the Future of International Relations; he is a professor in the ISU Political Science Department. Dianne Bystrom is director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics and is author and contributor to many books, including Gender and Candidate Communication. Part of the World Affairs series.

Dead Poet Talking - Neal Bowers
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Neal Bowers, Distinguished Professor of English at Iowa State University, is the inaugural speaker for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean's Lecture Series. He is the author of eight books that span a variety of genres - poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and literary scholarship. A poster display will precede the talk, and a reception and book signing will follow.

Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers - Movie
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - This is the story of what happens to everyday Americans when corporate America goes to war. Acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed and Uncovered) takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows, and children who have been changed forever as a result of profiteering in the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections between private corporations making a killing in Iraq and the decision makers who allow them to do so. The film is 75 minutes long.

How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America - Mindy Thompson Fullilove
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Mindy Thompson Fullilove, MD, is a board-certified research psychiatrist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and a professor of clinical psychiatry and public health at Columbia University. Fullilove joined the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies in 1986 and has focused on AIDS in relationship to inner city neighborhoods. Most recently, with support of a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Investigator Award, she has studied the long-term consequences of urban renewal for African American people. Her 2004 book, Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America and What We Can Do About It is based on her work in NYC RECOVERS, an alliance of organizations she founded that is concerned with the social and emotional recovery of New York City in the aftermath of 9/11. Part of the Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities series on Places, Peoples, and Spatial Practices.

Critical Landscapes: From Pork Barrels to Otherworldly Dumps and Gardens - Mira Engler
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Mira Engler, the Fall University Presidential Lecture and a professor of landscape architecture at Iowa State University, has written extensively on public art and marginal/waste landscapes. She designed The Otherworld Garden, an experimental garden created for the 2004 Westonbirt International Garden Festival in Gloucestershire, West England, and she is the author of Designing America's Waste Landscapes.A reception and poster display in the South Ballroom will precede the lecture from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m.