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Getting Bi: Challenging Biphobia and Bi Erasure and Creating a Culture of Inclusion
6:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - What does it mean to identify as bi+ (bisexual, pansexual, fluid, etc.)? What are the challenges to recognizing and understanding bisexuality and other non-binary sexualities—the largest yet often-overlooked segment of the LGBTQ+ community? No matter how you identify, come to this engaging and interactive program if you could use some tools for challenging ignorance, biphobia, and bi erasure and finding bi+ joy.Robyn Ochs is a US-based speaker, grassroots activist, and editor of Bi Women Quarterly and two anthologies: the 42-country collection Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World and RECOGNIZE: The Voices of Bisexual Men. An advocate for the rights of people of ALL orientations and genders to live safely, openly and with full access and opportunity, Robyn’s work focuses on increasing awareness and understanding of complex identities and mobilizing people to be powerful allies to one another within and across identities and social movements, with special interest in bi+ health, the experiences of bi+ people in the workplace, the global bi+ movement, and bi and LGBTQIA+ youth. Robyn was named by Teen Vogue as one of “9 Bisexual Women Who are Making History.” This event is part of a Women’s and Gender Studies Lecture Series funded by the Mellon Foundation’s Affirming Multivocal Humanities Grant, which was awarded to Dr. Winfrey and the WGS program in the fall of 2023.This lecture is available to view on the Available Recordings page.

Crying on the Camino
6:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Crying on the Camino is an original one-woman show conceived at the Wynn Handman Studios in New York City. This is a true account of an 11 day, 200-mile trek along Spain’s Camino de Santiago, an ancient pilgrim path leading to the Cathedral of the Santiago de Compostela in Northwest Spain. Each year, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from around the world walk or bike various routes to reach this final destination. This show chronicles the highs and lows of her adventure on the path, taking us on a journey of hilarity, hardship, and healing. Celeste weaves deft storytelling with snippets of song to highlight the humor and poignancy of this life-affirming trip, bringing audiences along the trail with her. This show has received the 2022 Broadway World Award for Best New Play and Best Performer. This play has received standing ovations from audiences across the United States, in fourteen different states. Crying on the Camino recently moved to the international stage with performances in Madrid and Santiago, Spain this past May.  Veteran stage actress Celeste Mancinelli has performed professionally since the early 80’s. Her NYC credits include the hit show “Nunsense” at the Douglas Fairbanks Theater, Cynthia Heimel’s long-running play “A Girl’s Guide to Chaos” at the American Place Theater (originating the character of Lurene), and Larry Gelbart’s “1-2-3-4-5” at the Manhattan Theater Club.  She has appeared as Mama in “My Big Fat Gay Italian Wedding” and its sequel (Funeral) at the St Luke’s Theatre. This past April she completed a run of “RUBBER” at the Theatre for the New City in NYC. Celeste has also worked in numerous Off-Broadway, cabaret, stock, regional, and national tours throughout the United States.  This lecture is available to view on the Available Recordings page for those with ISU login credentials.

All the Letters: Understanding LGBTQIA+ Identities and Experiences in 2024
6:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Robyn Ochs is a US-based speaker, grassroots activist, and editor of Bi Women Quarterly and two anthologies: the 42-country collection Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World and RECOGNIZE: The Voices of Bisexual Men. An advocate for the rights of people of ALL orientations and genders to live safely, openly and with full access and opportunity, Robyn’s work focuses on increasing awareness and understanding of complex identities and mobilizing people to be powerful allies to one another within and across identities and social movements, with special interest in bi+ health, the experiences of bi+ people in the workplace, the global bi+ movement, and bi and LGBTQIA+ youth. Robyn was named by Teen Vogue as one of “9 Bisexual Women Who are Making History.” This event is part of a Women’s and Gender Studies Lecture Series funded by the Mellon Foundation’s Affirming Multivocal Humanities Grant, which was awarded to Dr. Winfrey and the WGS program in the fall of 2023.This lecture is available to view on the Available Recordings page.

The History of Presidential Debates, 1960-Present
6:00 PM – 2630 Memorial Union - 2024 Constitution Day LectureOne of the rituals of American democracy is quadrennial debates between the Democratic and Republican nominees for president. Yet this particular tradition did not evolve until 1960 and was almost not repeated. This lecture will cover the history of presidential debates and what we’ve seen so far in the 2024 election season.Dr. Karen M. Kedrowski is Director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics and Professor of Political Science at Iowa State University. The Catt Center conducts research on women and politics, with a focus on Iowa; and promotes civic engagement. In addition to her duties at the Catt Center, Dr. Kedrowski teaches courses in American Politics and conducts research on women in American politics and civic engagement. She joined the Iowa State faculty in January 2019.Dr. Kedrowski is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and the University of Oklahoma, Norman. Prior to coming to Iowa State, she spent 24 years at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina, where she served in many roles, including Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. She also received Winthrop’s highest faculty honor, Distinguished Professor, in 2011.This lecture is available to view on the Available Recordings page.

Civil Conversations About Democracy? We Need to Talk
7:00 PM – Cardinal Room, Memorial Union - Following a brief introduction about their new book, Raising America: Building a More Perfect Union, former ISU professor Charles R. Kniker and former high school English teacher and current minister Dianne Prichard will discuss ways individuals and groups can hold meaningful conversations about today’s political situations. Responding in a question/answer format, they, along with V. V. Raman, a distinguished physicist and philosopher, tackle the fragile territory of conversation among friends and family.About the speakers:An ISU Professor of Education for 24 years and author of seven books, Charles is also an ordained minister, served as a seminary president, and Associate Director for Academic Affairs and Research, Iowa Board of Regents. While at ISU, he was the founding editor of the refereed journal, Religion & Education.For Dianne Prichard, twenty years of farming (1949-1973), 33 years of teaching (1973-2006) and 20 years of preaching (2004-present) provided a framework for holding onto one resigned husband and raising three multi-talented, slightly embarrassed children. This all was accomplished within 100 square miles of the eastern seaboard of Iowa, with brief sojourns at Wartburg College in Waverly, the Goethe Institute in Passau, Bavaria, South Dakota State University, and Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque. Due to the dynamics of aging, she lives in her Cottage on Silver Creek, only two blocks from her husband's abode, affectionally referred to as Stonehenge. Prichard has a penchant for seeing solutions within problems, from making Shakespeare fun to organizing mask-making volunteers to filing for office at the last minute to saving democracy.This lecture is available to view on the Available Recordings page.

Impacts of Transitioning to a Green(er) Economy
6:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - 2024 Kerry and Linda Killinger Foundation LectureSimon Gilchrist is a professor of economics at New York University and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research interests relate to monetary economics and applied macroeconomics. Much of his research focusses on the consequences of financial market turmoil and its impact on real economic activity, with particular focus on the implications for investment behavior, business-cycle dynamics, and the conduct of monetary policy. In recent work, Simon Gilchrist has explored the causes and consequences of financial crises and asset prices bubbles, as well as the appropriate monetary policy response to such events.Simon Gilchrist received his BA from Iowa State University in 1984, and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1990. Prior to arriving at Boston University in 1995, Gilchrist served as a staff economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and has held visiting positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He has also served as an academic consultant to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and the International Monetary Fund. He is currently a member of the editorial board of the American Economic Review, and an associate editor at the Review of Economics and Statistics.This lecture is available to view on the Available Recordings page.

Watergate 50 Years Later: What Have We Learned?
5:30 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - President Richard Nixon resigned as president of the United States on August 9, 1974, after the House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment again him. The charges stemmed from Nixon's actions to cover up his administration's involvement in the 1972 burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Office Building in Washington, D.C. The political and public pressure forced Nixon to leave office. Fifty years later, impeachment has become a weapon both major political parties have used against each other. This panel will explore the lessons we learned as a society during the Watergate hearings, how the use of impeachment has changed 50 years later, and the impact of the recent Supreme Court decision expanding Presidential immunity.Before the panel discussion, there will be a brief refresher video about the break-in and its consequences, produced by B&G Productions.PanelistsEd Mezvinsky, an Ames native, served as a member of the Iowa House of Representatives from 1969 to 1971 and then as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1973 to 1977, representing Iowa's 1st congressional district. While in Congress, Mezvinsky served on the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment proceedings against President Richard Nixon in 1974. His Congressional papers include records of all the closed sessions of the House Judiciary Committee during Watergate. They are now part of the Mezvinsky papers at the ISU Parks Library Collections. and open to the public after being sealed by the Government for 50 years. Ed also served as U.S. Representative to the United Nations Human Rights Commission from 1977-79. He is currently President of Global Advocacy, Ltd. and Patient Advocate for Jericho Road Community Health Center in Buffalo New York and globally in Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Nepal.  Jonathan R. Yarowsky entered public service  in 1982 as chief counsel of the U.S. House Judiciary Eco­nomic and Commercial Law Subcommittee. Soon after, he became general counsel of the House Committee on the Judiciary, where he oversaw 40 lawyers in six different subcom­mittees. From 1995 to 1998, he served as special counsel to the President (Clinton), whom he advised on antitrust, telecommunications and crime. When he re-entered private practice in 1998 he was appointed by the President and Congress to serve as a member of the National Commission on Crime. Yarowsky was also named in May 2024 by  the Washingto­nian magazine as one of Washington DC’s nine “Most Influential People Shaping Policy” in Anti-Trust -- for the third consecutive year.Jeff Ubiois has collaborated with Mezvinsky on his collection of Watergate papers since 2016. He is Vice President, Knowledge Management Lever for Change for the MacArthur Foundation. He also works in the Foundation’s American Democracy, Philanthropy and 100&Change programs. Ubois is also on the board of Better World Libraries -- a mission-driven for-profit bookseller that has donated almost $29 million and more than 26.5 million books to global literacy programs during the past two decades.Kathie Obradovich (moderator) has been Editor-in-Chief of the Iowa Capital Dispatch since its inception in January 2020 as a free, online, not-for-profit, news organization dedicated to connecting Iowans to their state government and its impact on their lives. She has 37 years of reporting experience in Iowa. She covered the Iowa Statehouse for 16 years for  Lee Enterprise newspapers. Obradovich then spent 16 years with the Des Moines Register as a political columnist and opinion editor before joining the Capital Dispatch, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news organization with operations in every state capital.This lecture will be recorded and ready to view on the Available Recordings page approximately 24-36 hours after the conclusion of the event.

Road Deaths & Serious Injuries: A Crisis of Complacency
6:00 PM – 2630 Memorial Union - Road safety is one of the most intractable public health challenges we have faced in the last 100 years. We have come a long way in our understanding of the causes and consequences of road trauma. However, today, many of the challenges we face are no longer technical or scientific. Rather, they are social and political. We know what we need to do, we just don't know how to do it. We will explore how we got to where we are today, and what systems approaches really mean. We will explore the institutional challenges, potential solutions, and what lessons we can learn to improve safety in other sectors.An experienced safety researcher, Dr. Carlyn Muir is an Associate Professor at Monash University Accident Research Centre in Australia. Muir's research portfolio covers a diverse range of injury and violence prevention topics across the safety sciences. She has maintained long-standing research partnerships with emergency service agencies and is currently working on research projects for local police and fire services. Muir also coordinates with the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Violence and Injury Prevention, which focuses on research, advocacy, and capacity building.  This lecture has been recorded and is available for viewing to those with an ISU login on the Available Recordings page until May 15.

Brothers, Unlimited
6:00 PM – 3560 Memorial Union - Ben Jealous is an American civil rights leader, activist, and politician who is the seventh executive director of the Sierra Club, one of the largest and most influential environmental organizations in the United States. With a background in social justice advocacy, Ben brings a unique perspective to his role, focusing on issues of environmental justice, climate change, and conservation. Before leading the Sierra Club, he served as the youngest-ever president and CEO of the NAACP, where he spearheaded campaigns to advance civil rights, voting rights, and criminal justice reform. Ben is a passionate advocate for marginalized communities and has dedicated his career to fighting for equality, sustainability, and a healthier planet for future generations.Ben is also a Professor of Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a The New York Times bestselling author of Reach: 40 Black Men Speak on Living, Leading, and Succeeding, and his latest book is Never Forget Our People Were Always Free: A Parable of American Healing. During his term at the NAACP, Ben created pathbreaking partnerships with conservative leaders and Republican governors to help shrink America's prison system as well as expand voting rights and employment opportunities for formerly incarcerated people. In 2013, The Washington Post hailed him as "one of the nation's most prominent civil rights leaders." He was previously the executive director of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, an organization of more than 200 historically black-owned newspapers.A former Rhodes Scholar, Ben is a graduate of Columbia and Oxford universities and a former visiting professor at Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs. He lives on the Chesapeake Bay with his children, Morgan and Jack, and their dog, Charlie.The ISU Book Store will be at the event selling copies of the speaker's book.This lecture was recorded and can be viewed by those with an ISU Net ID on the Available Recordings website.

Pathways to Peace: Drawing from the Experiences of Palestinian Refugees
6:00 PM – 2630 Memorial Union - This talk reflects on the prospects for a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the perspective of Palestinian refugees, who have been marginalized in international attempts to resolve the conflict. So far, these international attempts, which have largely focused on a two-state solution have been unsuccessful. Drawing on the experiences of Palestinian refugees who have been at the center of the research Dr. Gabiam has conducted over the last 20 years, she reflects on the challenges and possibilities that emerge from moving beyond a nationalist and state-centric approach to achieving peace in the Middle East.Nell Gabiam is Associate Professor of anthropology and political science and Co-Director of the Middle Eastern Studies Minor program at Iowa State University. She received her Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2008. She is the author of The Politics of Suffering: Syria’s Palestinian Refugee Camps (2016, Indiana University Press). She is currently working on her second book, which is the result of fieldwork conducted primarily in Lebanon, Turkey, France, Germany, and Sweden. Her second book project examines how mass displacement from Syria as a result of the ongoing war in that country has affected Palestinian identity and political claims.This lecture has been recorded and is available to view on the Available Recordings page until May 10.