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Welcome to Angry Asian America: One Blogger's Journey to Asian American Identity, Arts and Activism - Phil Yu
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Phil Yu is a writer, speaker and best known as the founder and editor of Angry Asian Man, one of the most widely read and longest-running independent websites covering news, culture and perspectives from the Asian American community. Mixing humor with criticism, Yu's commentary has been featured and quoted in the New York Times, National Public Radio, CNN, MSNBC, Wall Street Journal, BuzzFeed and more. Yu worked previously at the Center for Asian American Media, as a content producer for Yahoo! Movies, and is executive producer of the feature film Awesome Asian Bad Guys. He graduated with a BS in Radio/TV/Film from Northwestern University and earned his MA in Critical Studies from the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television.

Eco-Theatre: The Intersection of Art, Politics, and Environmental Science - Paula Cizmar, Playwright
8:00 PM – South Ballroom, Memorial Union - How do the arts take on important issues—particularly the often controversial topics that emerge in the area of environmental science? Playwright Paula Cizmar, internationally known as one of the authors of Seven, discusses eco-theatre and how it can communicate ideas, raise awareness, inspire action, and promote empathy. Pearl Hogrefe Visiting Writers Series

Planned Parenthood: The Pink Exposed - Sue Thayer
7:00 PM – 1148 Gerdin Business Building - Sue Thayer was an Iowa Planned Parenthood manager for 18 years before a transformative experience made her an abortion opponent. Objecting to a controversial teleconferencing system that allows doctors to dispense abortion pills to patients in rural clinics, Thayer's concerns eventually turned into a 2011 lawsuit against Planned Parenthood of the Heartland. She led Storm Lake’s first ever 40 Days for Life campaign at the clinic she supervised for many years and is currently in litigation. Thayer has been a foster and adoptive parent for 27 years, and is founder and Director of Cornerstone for Life Pregnancy Resource Center.

America and the Middle East: Shifting Sands in the Security Relationship? - Deborah Jones
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Ambassador Deborah K. Jones, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, recently stepped down as the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, a position she held May 2013 through 2015. She also served as U.S. Ambassador to the State of Kuwait from 2008 to 2011 and as Principal Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Istanbul, Turkey from 2005 to 2007. Additional overseas assignments include posts in Iraq, Tunisia, Syria, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates. Ambassador Jones has also served as Senior Faculty Advisor for National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College and prior to her post in Libya was Scholar-in-Residence at the Middle East Institute. World Affairs Series

Design for Life - Stuart Walker
5:30 PM – Kocimski Auditorium, 101 College of Design - Stuart Walker is Chair of Design for Sustainability and a Director of the Imagination Lancaster Research Centre at Lancaster University, UK. He is also Visiting Professor of Sustainable Design at Kingston University, UK, and Emeritus Professor, University of Calgary, Canada. His distinctive practice-based research explores the environmental, social and spiritual aspects of sustainability. He has received numerous funding awards in Canada and the UK including SSHRC, AHRC and Arts Council England. His books include: Sustainable by Design; The Spirit of Design; The Handbook of Design for Sustainability (ed. with J. Giard), and Designing Sustainability. Part of the Changing Change: Thoughts and Actions for Sustainable Environments Series

Main Street vs. Wall Street: An Historical Perspective - David Weiman
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - David Weiman is Alena Wels Hirschorn '58 Professor of Economics at Barnard College and faculty director of its innovative Empirical Reasoning Center. He has been honored with the Economic History Association’s Hughes Prize for Excellence in Teaching Economic History. Weiman specializes in 19th- and 20th-century U.S. economic history and the political economy of contemporary U.S. criminal justice policy. His current research focuses on the evolution of the U.S. banking-monetary system from Jackson’s Bank War to the formation of the Federal Reserve. Phi Beta Kappa Lecture and part of the National Affairs Series

How to Interpret the Bible - Mary Healy
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - The question of how to interpret the Bible has exercised some of the greatest minds in history, and in modern times new forms of interpretation have emerged. Mary Healy, a professor of Sacred Scripture at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, shares her perspective, addressing such questions as Should scripture be interpreted literally or spiritually? What do we do with apparent contradictions and historical inaccuracies? and How do we understand Genesis 1-3 in light of modern science? Healy, a senior fellow at the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, is currently involved in the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture project, a series of commentaries that interpret scripture from within the heart of the Catholic Church. She is author of its first volume, The Gospel of Mark. Msgr. James A. Supple Lecture Series

Hamilton and the Road to Success: In Words & Music ­ - Tony Award Winner Leslie Odom, Jr.
7:00 PM – Stephens Auditorium, Iowa State Center - Leslie Odom, Jr., won a Tony Award playing Aaron Burr in the groundbreaking Broadway musical Hamilton, the story of a founding father told through the language and rhythms of hip-hop and R&B. The production has become a cultural phenomena, energizing the performing arts and engaging more people in a story of American history and politics than any civics lesson could. Odom will discuss his life and career before taking questions from the audience and performing songs from the much-acclaimed musical. His story has a valuable message for students in any discipline, emphasizing the need for patience, determination and desire to achieve success, and the importance of taking charge of one's own future. Odom also won a Grammy Award as a principal soloist on Hamilton’s Original Broadway Cast Recording, which won the 2015 award for Best Musical Theater Album.

The Leopold Center at 30 and Beyond - Panel Discussion
7:00 PM – Richard and Joan Stark Lecture Hall, 1148 Gerdin Business Building - For 30 years the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture has worked to identify and develop new ways to farm profitably while conserving natural resources and reducing negative environmental and social impacts. Three former Iowa legislators involved in the passage of the landmark Iowa Groundwater Protection Act of 1987, which created the Leopold Center, will discuss their original vision for the center, its accomplishments and challenges, and the role it can play in Iowa agriculture in the 21st century. Participants include David Osterberg, Ralph Rosenberg, and Paul Johnson. Leopold Center Director Mark Rasmussen will moderate the discussion. Shivvers Memorial Lecture

Apps, Maps, and Models: The Digital Revolution and History - Caroline Bruzelius
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Caroline Bruzelius, founder of the Wired! Lab at Duke University, will discuss how digital technologies are opening up the humanities to broader engagement with the public and revolutionizing the way scholars teach and do research. Bruzelius has been working with digital visualization technologies for art and architecture for more than ten years and will share how they are changing how scholars model historical questions about places, buildings, and change over time. The Wired! Lab has also been a pioneer in integrating digital tools into teaching. Caroline Bruzelius is the Anne M. Cogan Professor of Art, Art History, and Visual Studies at Duke University and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Benson Memorial Lecture in Literature, Science and the Arts