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Past Events

Monday, 13 Nov 2017

Green Light of Peace: Women, War and Post-War Return in Liberia - Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso, a visiting scholar with the African Humanities Program, will speak about her research on African women in post-conflict situations and gender and politics. She holds a PhD in political science and teaches in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Babcock University, Ogun State, Nigeria. In 2012 she was a postdoctoral Global South Scholar-in-Residence at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. She currently serves as editor of the Journal of International Politics and Development.

Changing the Way We See Native America - Matika Wilbur
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Matika Wilbur is a photographer and social documentarian from the Swinomish and Tulalip Tribes of the Pacific Northwest. She is the creator of Project 562, a multi-year national photo and narrative undertaking to document contemporary Indian identity. For three years, Wilbur drove more than a quarter million miles from Alaska to the Southwest, Louisiana to Maine, to meet and photograph diverse peoples of the 562 federally recognized Nations of Indigenous Americans. Wilbur began her portrait work with Coast Salish elders in We Are One People. Her other projects include We Emerge on the complexity of contemporary Native American identity, and a one-person exhibition Save the Indian, Kill the Man at The Seattle Art Museum. Indigenous Heritage Month Join us at 6:00pm for a performance by the Meskwaki Nation dancers prior to the lecture. No recording or podcast will be available for this event.

Meskwaki Nation Dancers - Performance
6:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Celebrate Indigenous Heritage Month with a special performance by the Meskwaki Nation dancers. The performance will last approximately 45 minutes and precedes a 7:00pm lecture, "Changing the Way We See Native America," featuring Matika Wilbur, a photographer and social documentarian from the Swinomish and Tulalip Tribes of the Pacific Northwest. Indigenous Heritage Month Event Photo copyright Meskwaki Nation

Tuesday, 7 Nov 2017

Pakistan's Role in the War Against Terror - Consul General Faisal Niaz Tirmizi
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Faisal Niaz Tirmizi is the Consul General of Pakistan in the Chicago Consulate, which covers 12 states in the Midwest, including Iowa. The Consul General previously served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Desk Officer of the Middle East, Central Asia, Afghanistan, India, and as Director of Personnel and Protocol in the Foreign Secretary’s Office. His diplomatic assignments have included Pakistan Missions abroad in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan (1996-99); Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland (2003-07); and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (2007-10). He is a graduate of the Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad; and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and joined the Foreign Service of Pakistan in 1993.

Monday, 6 Nov 2017

Racial Equality and Catholic Teaching - Anne Clifford
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in our nation’s capital nearly 55 years ago, on August 28, 1963. Anne Clifford, the Msgr. James A. Supple Chair in Catholic Studies at Iowa State University, will speak about Dr. King's life and work advocating for racial justice in light of recent developments in America and Catholic teachings on racism, especially those of United States Bishops. Msgr. James A. Supple Lecture Series

Thursday, 2 Nov 2017

Campus Forum - Candidates for Ames Mayor & City Council
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - The Student Government will host a forum with candidates running for Ames mayor and city council seats in the November 7 election. Candidates will address issues of concern to Iowa State University students in brief opening remarks and then take questions from the audience. Participants include mayoral candidates Victoria Szopinski and John Haila and city council candidates Amber Corrieri, David Martin, Gloria Betcher, and Rob Bowers. Student Government Vice President Cody Smith will moderate.

How Lucy Died and Why It Matters - John Kappelman
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - John Kappelman, a paleoanthropologist and professor at the University of Texas at Austin, will discuss the most famous fossil in the world - Lucy, an ancient human ancestor found in Ethiopia in 1974 - and what her bones tell us about our evolutionary history. Using CT technology, Kappelman and his team identified a series of fractures in Lucy’s skeleton, which they interpreted as traumatic injuries resulting from a fall, most likely from high in a tree. Their findings on Lucy's cause of death, subsequently published in the journal Nature, suggest that Lucy may actually have been a tree dweller and are challenging scientists' understanding of human evolution.

Wednesday, 1 Nov 2017

The Economy and You: Separating the Facts from the Fiction - Peter Dunn
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Peter Dunn is a personal finance expert known as Pete the Planner® with a USA TODAY financial advice column and The Million Dollar Plan Podcast. He is the founder of Advanced Planning Solutions, a financial education firm, and author of ten books including 60 Days to Change: A Daily How-To Guide With Actionable Tips for Improving Your Financial Life. He regularly appears on CNN Headline News, Fox News, Fox Business as well as numerous nationally syndicated radio programs, and is considered one of the top four most influential financial broadcasters in the nation. Greater Iowa Credit Union Business Lecture Series

Monday, 30 Oct 2017

Food Evolution - Documentary & Discussion
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Food Evolution wrestles with the emotions and the evidence driving one of the most heated arguments of our time: GMOs and food. Traveling from Hawaiian papaya groves, to banana farms in Uganda to the cornfields of Iowa, the film looks at the polarized debate on GMOs and the fear, distrust and confusion surrounding the topic. It enlists such experts and icons as Mark Lynas, Alison Van Eenennaam, Jeffrey Smith, Andrew Kimbrell, Vandana Shiva, Robert Fraley, Marion Nestle and Bill Nye, as well as farmers and scientists from around the world, in an effort to separate the hype from the science and unravel the debate around food. Alison Van Eenennaam, Professor and Extension Animal Genomics and Biotechnology Specialist at University of California, Davis, will provide brief opening remarks and lead a discussion immediately following the 90-minute film.

Thursday, 26 Oct 2017

Black Holes in the Universe and in Hollywood - Roger Blandford
8:00 PM – Benton Auditorium, Scheman Building, Iowa State Center - Roger Blandford is an astrophysicist widely recognized for his contributions to the study of black holes. He will describe the strange and wonderful behavior of black holes and compare that to some of the alternate realities created in the movies. Blandford directs the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University, where he is the Luke Blossom Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences and a member of the Physics Department. Blandford is known for his pioneering theoretical work and has studied a wide variety of phenomena crucial to understanding the universe’s structure and evolution. His many achievements include the discovery of how energy is extracted from a rotating black hole, now referred to in his honor as the Blandford–Znajek process. Zaffarano Lecture in Physics