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Past Events

Friday, 13 Sep 2019

The Importance of Being Different - ROY REIMAN
3:30 PM – MacKay Hall Auditorium (0117) - Media businessman and entrepreneur Roy Reiman will speak about his career in magazines and publishing. He founded Reiman Publications, which grew to employ over 600 people and published 14 national magazines—all of which were supported solely with subscriptions, and no advertising. At the company’s peak, when the total circulation reached 16.3 million subscribers, every eighth home in America received at least one of the magazines. Twelve years ago Reiman “flunked retirement,” as he puts it, and launched Our Iowa for his home state, and five years ago launched Our Wisconsin for his adopted state. 2019 Reiman Entrepreneurial Speaker Series

Tuesday, 10 Sep 2019

Emotions: Separating Fact from Fiction - Lisa Feldman Barrett
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Neuroscience Interdepartmental Graduate Program reception & student poster display 6:00-7:00 p.m., South Ballroom, Memorial Union Lisa Feldman Barrett is a University Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University and the author of How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain. She will discuss her research and paradigm-shifting theory that feelings like happiness, pride, or rage aren’t hardwired and triggered but rather constructed in the moment based on experience and learned behavior. Her work has implications not just in fields like neuroscience and psychology but also for medicine, the legal system, child-rearing, and even airport security. In addition to her academic position, Barrett holds research appointments at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. Neuroscience Research Day 2019 Keynote The University Bookstore will be on site to sell copies of How Emotions are Made.

Thursday, 5 Sep 2019

Communications and Civility in Our Democracy - S.E. Cupp
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - S.E. Cupp is a political commentator, culture critic, and author of Why You're Wrong About The Right, Behind the Myths and Losing Our Religion. She brings a conservative, feminist perspective to her weekly program on CNN, Unfiltered, and is recognized for encouraging honest and respectful dialogue around politics, religion, and the media in American life. In addition to her commentary for CNN, Cupp hosts her own radio show and writes a regular column in the New York Daily News and on The Daily Caller. She was previously a co-host on MSNBC’s The Cycle. Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication 2019 Summit Keynote S.E. Cupp's keynote address is free and open to the public. Greenlee Summit (Friday, September 6 - Scheman Building): Students are invited to attend speakers and sessions freely throughout the day and need not register in advance. Registration is required for community leaders, professionals, and educators to attend summit events. More information and registration details The University Bookstore will be on site to sell copies of Losing Our Religion

Friday, 3 May 2019

Dream Big, Fight Hard - Senator Elizabeth Warren
1:45 PM – South Ballroom, Memorial Union - Doors open at 12:45pm | No tickets or reserved seating Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is a senior U.S. Senator from Massachusetts. She was a law professor for 30 years before her election to public office in 2012. Warren’s career has focused on advocating for middle class families and small businesses. She served as Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and subsequently helped establish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2011 as an assistant to President Barack Obama and special adviser to the Secretary of the Treasury. She currently serves on the Committee on Armed Services; the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee; and the Special Committee on Aging, where she is focused on supporting and strengthening Social Security and Medicare. Statements about key issues, including student debt cancellation, anti-corruption reform, protecting voting rights, and criminal justice reform are available at elizabethwarren.com. Part of the Campaign Series in 2019, providing the university community with opportunities to question candidates before the Iowa Caucuses.

Thursday, 25 Apr 2019

The Art of Fiction - A Reading & Conversation with Margot Livesey
7:00 PM – Pioneer Room, Memorial Union - Margot Livesey is the award-winning author of ten books, including a collection of stories, Learning by Heart, and eight acclaimed novels: Homework, Criminals, The Missing World, Eva Moves the Furniture, Banishing Verona, The House on Fortune Street, The Flight of Gemma Hardy, and Mercury, which was named a Best Book of 2016 by Kirkus Reviews and Barnes & Noble. Her most recent book is a collection of essays on the art of writing, The Hidden Machinery. Margot Livesey grew up in a boys’ private school in the Scottish Highlands, where her father taught and her mother was the school nurse. She has been the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts and currently teaches at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Pearl Hogrefe Visiting Writers Series

The Hidden Machinery: The Art of Writing - A Conversation with Margot Livesey
2:10 PM – Pioneer Room, Memorial Union - Join students and faculty in the Creative Writing Program for this informal moderated craft talk. Writers will have the opportunity to ask questions and hear author Margot Livesey discuss her writing process. Livesey is the award-winning author of ten books, including a collection of stories, Learning by Heart, and eight acclaimed novels: Homework, Criminals, The Missing World, Eva Moves the Furniture, Banishing Verona, The House on Fortune Street, The Flight of Gemma Hardy, and Mercury, which was named a Best Book of 2016 by Kirkus Reviews and Barnes & Noble. Her most recent book is a collection of essays on the art of writing, The Hidden Machinery. Pearl Hogrefe Visiting Writers Series Praise for The Hidden Machinery: "There is no finer teacher of writing in America than Margot Livesey. The young writer who spends an hour with Livesey leaves with pockets filled with nuggets of her sly intuitions. To have an entire book of her wit, wisdom and constructive suggestions is to possess the mother lode.” James Magnuson, Director of the Michener Center for Writers

Wednesday, 24 Apr 2019

But Is She 'Likable?' Gendered Media Coverage of Women Presidential Candidates - Dianne Bystrom
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Dianne Bystrom is director emerita of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University. She directed the center for 22 years before retiring in August 2018. Bystrom will discuss the how the media has covered women running for office differently than men, and what that might mean for the 2020 presidential election, for which there is an unprecedented number of women candidates. Bystrom has edited or contributed to a number of publications on the topic, including Women in the American Political System: An Encyclopedia of Women as Voters, Candidates, and Office Holders; An Unprecedented Election: Media, Communication, and the Electorate in the 2016 Campaign; and Gender and Elections.

Tuesday, 23 Apr 2019

Generative Design in the Architecture of Medieval Chinese Buddhism
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Tracy Miller is an associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at Vanderbilt University, where she teaches the history of arts and architecture in Asia, with a special emphasis on the ritual and garden architecture of Imperial China and Japan. Her research focuses on the impact of belief in divinity on the production of art, architecture, and spaces for spiritual encounters. She is the author of The Divine Nature of Power: Chinese Ritual Architecture at the Sacred Site of Jinci and is currently writing a book on the use of Indic design strategies in the Buddhist temple architecture of Early Medieval and Medieval China. Donald R. Benson Memorial Lecture The Donald B. Benson Memorial honors Donald Benson, a former Iowa State English professor, who had longterm interest in the relationship among the three intellectual disciplines of literal, science, and the arts. Cosponsored by: Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities Committee on Lectures (funded by Student Government)

Shut Up and Dance - A Musical Celebration of the First Amendment
8:00 PM – Tye Recital Hall, Music Hall - “Shut Up and Dance” is an engaging and irreverent concert celebrating free speech through music. It tells the story of America's social struggles and progress through pop, rock, gospel, soul, country, and hip-hop music and illuminates for audiences the pivotal moments when artists were told to be quiet and instead spoke up. The program includes some of Nashville's finest musicians and features contemporary songs by Beyonce, Lorde, Macklemore, and Taylor Swift alongside vintage anthems by Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, and Loretta Lynn. First Amendment Days

Empowering the Next Generation of Engineers - Ashraf Habibullah
4:00 PM – Alliant Energy-Lee Liu Auditorium, Howe Hall - Ashraf Habibullah is a structural engineer who helped develop the technology and software engineers use to design earthquake-resistant buildings and bridges. He is president of the company Computers and Structures, whose software is used by thousands of engineering firms around the world. Habibullah will discuss the future of engineering as a profession, especially the need for today’s engineering students to be exposed to more than just technology. The ability to connect with others as humans is what will ultimately allow them to lead, influence, and inspire.