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Past Events
Saturday, 9 Apr 2016
Aldo Leopold: A Standard of Change - A One-Act Play
2:00 PM – ISU Alumni Center South Ballroom - The one-man play A Standard of Change explores the influences and challenges that led Aldo Leopold to penning some of the most important essays in his book A Sand County Almanac. The play is set in one evening in and around the famous Wisconsin Shack that inspired much of Leopold's writing. Jim Pfitzer, who wrote and stars in the play, skillfully captures Leopold's reflections on the effects of human progress on wildness and how we manage wild places. With over two million copies sold, A Sand County Almanac is one of the most respected books about the environment ever published, and Aldo Leopold has come to be regarded by many as the most influential conservation thinker of the twentieth century. Ames Reads Leopold Series
Thursday, 7 Apr 2016
Hertz Lecture on Emerging Issues in Agriculture - Roger Underwood
7:30 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Your future is short - don't waste it working for someone else, is the advice entrepreneur Roger Underwood, a graduate of Iowa State and former CEO of Becker Underwood, offers students. Becker Underwood was the world's leading supplier of non-pesticide specialty chemical and biological products for agricultural, turf and horticulture markets, with annual sales of nearly $200 million. Underwood and co-founder and childhood friend Jeff Becker sold the company to the German chemical company BASF in 2012. Roger Underwood has been a longtime supporter of Iowa State University, especially the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He helped establish and fund the college's Agriculture Entrepreneurship Initiative. Carl and Marjory Hertz Lecture on Emerging Issues in Agriculture
Christian Sexual Ethics at the End of Days: Promiscuous Possibilities - Richard McCarty
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Richard McCarty, an associate professor of religious studies at Mercyhurst University, studies religious perspectives on human relationships and sexual ethics. He will discuss Christian discourse about the end of days and how it impacts Christian ideas of sexual morality today. McCarty is the author of Sexual Virtue: An Approach to Contemporary Christian Ethics. His work draws on data from the natural and social sciences, insights from cross-cultural dialogues, biblical scholarship, and revisionist thinking to offer a more compassionate and inclusive notion of sexual virtue for our time. McCarty received his PhD in religious studies from the University of Iowa.
Wednesday, 6 Apr 2016
ISIS, Jihadist Violence, and the Quest for an Idealized Islamic State - Michael Christopher Low
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Michael Christopher Low will reframe the discussion of ISIS against the backdrop of more than a half century of unsuccessful jihadist attempts to topple repressive dictatorships and secular states in the Middle East. He is an assistant professor of history, specializing in Late Ottoman, Modern Middle Eastern, and environmental history. His articles, commentary, and reviews have appeared (or are forthcoming) in the Arab Studies Journal, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Jadaliyya, the International Journal of Middle East Studies, the Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association, and the Review of Middle East Studies. He earned his Ph.D. From Columbia University. College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Dean's Lecture Series
Iowa State University faculty, staff and students may contact the Lectures Program with requests for the presentation podcast.
The Geography of Inequality: Local Governments and Community Well-Being across America - Linda Lobao
7:00 PM – Dolezal Auditorium, 127 Curtiss Hall - Linda Labao is a professor in Rural Sociology, Sociology, and Geography at The Ohio State University's School of Environment and Natural Resources. Her work focuses on how changes in industry and agriculture, as well as governments, have an impact on communities, households, and individuals. She will discuss geographic disparities in poverty and privilege and how local governments can help reduce inequality and ensure public well-being. Lobao has been a faculty member at Ohio State since 1986 and has served as chair of the rural sociology graduate program since 2005. She received her PhD from North Carolina. George M. Beal Distinguished Lecture in Rural Sociology
The Education of Indians and Unfinished Business - Norbert S. Hill, Jr.
7:00 PM – Kocimski Auditorium, 101 College of Design - Norbert S. Hill, Jr., (Oneida Nation) is the Area Manager for Education and Training for the Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin. He was one of the original Indigenous scientists who founded the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES), a national organization focused on increasing the representation of American Indian in STEM studies and careers, and was awarded with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering. Hill has written about the challenges encountered by American Indian people in such publications as The American Indian Graduate and Winds of Change Magazine. He received a BS in sociology and anthropology and an MS in guidance and counseling both from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Richard Thompson Memorial Lecture
The Future of Healthy Families - Ronald Dahl
4:00 PM – 2019 Morrill Hall - Ronald Dahl, MD, is the director of the Institute of Human Development at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also a professor in the School of Public Health and the Joint Medical Program. Dr. Dahl is a pediatrician and developmental scientist with research interests in the development of sleep/arousal regulation, affect regulation, and the development of behavioral and emotional disorders in children and adolescents. He has been elected as a Fellow of several organizations, including the Association for Psychological Science, American Academy of Pediatrics, New York Academy of Sciences, and American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Helen LeBaron Hilton Endowed Chair Lecture Series
Tuesday, 5 Apr 2016
Celebrate National Poetry Month - Readings with Ada Limón & Jennifer Knox
7:00 PM – Ames Public Library, 515 Douglas Ave - Ada Limón is the author of four books of poetry, including Bright Dead Things, which was a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award in Poetry and named one of the Top Ten Poetry Books of the Year by the New York Times. She serves on the faculty of Queens University of Charlotte Low Residency MFA program. Jennifer Knox teaches at Iowa State and is the author of four books of poetry, including, most recently, Days of Shame and Failure. Her work has appeared four times in the Best American Poetry series as well as the New York Times, The New Yorker, and American Poetry Review.
Farming for the Long Term: Iowa Farmers on Sustainability - Panel Discussion
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Three Iowa farmers share practical solutions and personal experiences with conservation and sustainable agriculture practices. Participants: Nathan Anderson is a beginning farmer who graduated from Iowa State in 2010 with a degree in agronomy. He farms near Cherokee on an integrated crop/livestock farm and is interested in promoting farming designs that insure long-term sustainability. He is a commissioner for the Cherokee County Soil and Water District and a member of Practical Farmers of Iowa. Mike DeCook operates a ranch near Lovilla in southern Iowa, where he custom grazes cattle and raises grassfed bison. He is committed to restoring biodiversity of native species and donated 200 acres of land to the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation to be permanently protected by a conservation easement. Laura Krouse is the owner of Abbe Hills Farm near Mount Vernon. In addition to operating a 200-member CSA and selling vegetables and eggs locally, she markets Abbe Hill Open Pollinated Seed Corn, a heirloom yellow dent corn grown on the farm since 1903. Krouse taught biology at Cornell College and is a longtime commissioner for the Linn County Soil and Water District. Mark Rasmussen, director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, will moderate the discussion. Shivvers Memorial Lecture
Monday, 4 Apr 2016
Soul Food Love: Healthy Recipes Inspired by One Hundred Years of Cooking in a Black Family - Alice Randall
7:00 PM – 0101 Carver Hall - Alice Randall is a New York Times bestselling novelist, award-winning songwriter, and an innovative food activist. Together with her daughter Caroline Randall Williams she coauthored the cookbook Soul Food Love: Healthy Recipes Inspired by One Hundred Years of Cooking in a Black Family. The book offers a new vision for the twenty-first-century Black kitchen with easy, affordable, and healthy meals that still honor their African American cultural and culinary heritage. Alice Randall holds a primary appointment in African American and Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt University with a secondary appointment in English. She is the author of several works of fiction, including The Wind Done Gone, Pushkin and the Queen of Spades, Rebel Yell, and Ada's Rules. She is a graduate of Harvard University and received an honorary doctorate from Fisk University in 2012.