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New Developments in China and Sino-US Relations - Consul General Hong Lei
5:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Hong Lei is the Consul General of the People's Republic of China in Chicago. The Consulate General covers nine states in the Midwest, including Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana and Iowa. He previously served in the Department of Information of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Embassy in the Netherlands, and as First Secretary at the Consulate General in San Francisco. Part of the World Affairs Series

When Christians First Met Muslims - Michael Penn
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Michael Penn is a professor of religious studies at Stanford University and specializes in the history of early Christianity with a focus on Middle Eastern Christians. Middle Eastern Christians composed the earliest and largest collection of Christian writings on Islam, but their experiences are largely omitted from the modern historical narrative because of the unfamiliar Aramaic dialect of Syriac in which they wrote. Michael Penn will discuss how the history of Christian-Muslim relations changes if, instead of relying on the writings of Greek and Latin Christians who often were in military conflict with Muslims, one focuses on Middle Eastern Christians and their everyday encounters with Muslims. No podcast will be available for this event.

Women Leaders: Building Bridges to Get the Job Done - Sen. Amy Klobuchar
7:30 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Amy Klobuchar became the first woman elected to represent Minnesota in the U.S. Senate in 2006 and is currently serving her second term in office. Senator Klobuchar has built a reputation for working across party lines, including on landmark pieces of legislation to end human trafficking, to combat the opioid epidemic, and to improve the lives of veterans. She championed a long-term Farm Bill in 2014 and was one of fourteen senators who fought to create a bipartisan debt commission. Senator Klobuchar currently serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee; Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee; and Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee. She chairs the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee and is the ranking member on the Senate Rules and Administration Committee and joint Economic Committee. Mary Louise Smith Chair in Women and Politics

ISU Lectures 60th Anniversary Celebration
3:30 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Join us for an open house reception, 3:30-5:30pm, to celebrate the Iowa State Lectures Program! The Committee on Lectures was established in 1958 with a series of four speakers. For 25 years it was directed by professor James Lowrie and initially operated out of his office in the English Department. Today, the Lectures Program Office works with the Committee on Lectures, the National Affairs Series (est. 1968) and World Affairs Series (est. 1966) planning committees, as well as a wide range of student organizations, academic units, and administrative offices, to schedule more than 100 speakers each year. This special event includes a short program at 4:30pm to recognize director Pat Miller's ongoing leadership and service.

Home Voices - MFA Program in Writing & the Environment Alumni Festival
5:00 PM – Ames Public Library, 515 Douglas Avenue - Four graduates of the Iowa State MA and MFA Program in Writing & the Environment return to Ames to read from recently published works. Participants include Lauren Alleyne, author of Difficult Fruit and assistant director of the Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University; Lindsay Tigue author of System of Ghosts, winner of the 2016 Iowa Poetry Prize; Melissa Sevigny, Arizona Public Radio's science and technology reporter and author of two new books on the American Southwest, Mythical River and Under Desert Skies; and Lucas Southworth assistant professor of writing at Loyola University Maryland and editor at Slash Pine Press. Pearl Hogrefe Visiting Writers Series

The First Amendment and Community Journalism - Glenn Smith
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - In an age of fake news and alternative facts, it has become more important than ever for journalists to use the power of the First Amendment to expose lies, shed light on injustices and give a voice to the downtrodden. Institutions such as the New York Times and the Washington Post are leading the charge at the national level, but community media outlets across the country have important stories to tell as well. Special projects editor Glenn Smith will discuss how The Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina, has made a difference with watchdog journalism that includes a Pulitzer Prize-winning series that sparked widespread domestic reforms in the nation’s deadliest state for women. First Amendment Days

Freedom Sings - A Musical Celebration of the First Amendment
7:00 PM – Ames City Auditorium, 515 Clark Avenue - Freedom Sings is a multimedia presentation featuring music that has been banned, censored or sounded a call for social change. A program of the First Amendment Center, Freedom Sings features live music, video and narration, and showcases hit songwriters, performers and Grammy Award winners. It looks at some of the most controversial songs in American history, recognizing the full spectrum of political views. Ken Paulson, former editor of USA TODAY and president of the Newseum Institute's First Amendment Center, will host. Participating musicians include Bill Lloyd, guitar; Dez Dickerson, guitar; Jonell Mosser, vocals; and the Steve Miller Band's Joseph Wooten, keyboard. Part of the First Amendment Day Series


Strengthening the Sustainability of Agricultural Biodiversity - Karl Zimmerer
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Karl Zimmerer is Professor of Environment and Society Geography at Pennsylvania State University, where he studies the importance of agrobiodiversity in complex agricultural landscapes. His research focuses on small-scale and indigenous farming in Latin American tropical mountain environments like Bolivia and Ecuador. Not only does Zimmerer map the landscape of biodiversity - for example, documenting 74 different varieties of potato in a single field in Peru - his work aims to identify risks to biodiversity and what they mean for ecological conservation, cultural and ethnic expression, and economic development. He is currently researching territorial initiatives for sustainability, citizen-science seed networks, and links of agrobiodiversity to multi-scale global changes. Sustainable Agriculture Symposium Keynote No podcast available for this event. A poster session and reception will precede the lecture, 5:30-7:00pm, in the South Ballroom.

Cyber-Sabotage: The History and Politics of Russian-American Hacking - Fred Kaplan
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Fred Kaplan is a journalist who writes a national security column for Slate magazine, and has penned five books about American politics. His most recent book, Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War, chronicles the long history of hacking between the United States and Russia. The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War was a 2014 Pulitzer Prize finalist. He has written for the Atlantic, the Boston Globe, Foreign Affairs and the New York Times, and has a doctorate in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

G.I.'s and Jews after the Holocaust - Kierra Crago-Schneider
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Kierra Crago-Schneider is a program officer at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Her work focuses on Jewish Displaced Persons’ interactions with their non-Jewish neighbors in the American zone of occupied Germany. She will discuss the treatment of Jewish Displaced Persons by the Office of the American Military Government, United States and ordinary GIs in Germany over the course of the American occupation and how these relationships changed Cold War history. Crago-Schneider earned a PhD in history from the University of California-Los Angeles. No podcast available for this event.