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Past Events

Tuesday, 29 Mar 2016

Technology in 2025: Designing the Future - Brian David Johnson
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Brian David Johnson was the first futurist at the Intel Corporation, where he worked for a decade helping design over 2 billion microprocessors. As an applied futurist, Johnson has worked with governments, militaries, trade organizations, start-ups and multinational corporations to not only help envision their future, but to help develop an actionable 10-15 year vision. His work is called future-casting, and he uses ethnographic field studies, technology research, cultural history, trend data, global interviews and even science fiction to provide a pragmatic roadmap of the future. He is currently the futurist in residence at Arizona State University's Center for Science and the Imagination and a professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society. National Affairs Series.

Hands to Earth: Exploring Agriculture through Performance Art - Cherie Sampson
7:00 PM – Campanile Room, Memorial Union - Cherie Sampson is a visual artist and dancer who creates multi-media videos and installations focusing on ecology and agriculture. She will discuss her current project, "Hands to Earth," which explores Midwestern small-scale agriculture through filmed dance performances in fields and orchards. Her presentation includes video examples of her work as well as a performance of a short dance piece from "Hands to Earth." Sampson hopes to create a dialog about the importance of agriculture beyond agricultural science. She earned an MFA from the University of Iowa in Intermedia and Video Art, teaches at the University of Missouri, and has exhibited and performed in places such as Finland, Hong Kong, and Italy. Her fellowships and grants include two Fulbright Awards and a Change Foundation Grant.

Monday, 28 Mar 2016

Movement BE: Tell Your Story - Nate Howard
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Nate Howard made the front page of the LA Times in 2013 for sparking a movement against racial profiling after 79 Los Angeles Police officers shut down his event at the University of Southern California, where he was a student. Realizing someone was attempting to tell his story, Howard founded Movement BE, a non-profit organization that creates curriculum to help young people discover themselves and challenge the status quo through poetry. With the mission of "tell your story before they do," the program has had a direct impact on thousands of students. Howard has also since partnered with a civil rights lawyer to build Movement BE's "Know Your Rights" workshop, which educates individuals about their rights during encounters with law enforcement.

The Illusion of Free Will and Its Impact on Moral Responsibility - August Berkshire
7:00 PM – Pioneer Room, Memorial Union - August Berkshire will discuss the ramifications of a natural universe without gods or free will, in which evolution shapes our thoughts and actions. Berkshire has been an atheist activist for more than thirty years. He is a past president and a current member of the board of directors of the Minnesota Atheists, past vice president of Atheist Alliance International and is on the national board of directors of the American Atheists.

Thursday, 24 Mar 2016

How People Learn and the Creativity Of Science - Karen Oates
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Karen Kashmanian Oates is a professor of biochemistry and the Dean of Arts & Sciences at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Previously, she worked at the National Science Foundation, where she was a deputy director of the Division of Undergraduate Education charged with supporting innovative programs to strengthen undergraduate education and help revitalize American entrepreneurship and competitiveness. Oates received her BS in biology from Rochester Institute of Technology and her PhD in biochemistry from The George Washington University. She was a Visiting Research Fellow at the National Institutes of Health, Oncology and Hematology division before beginning her academic career at George Mason University. Sigma Xi Lecture Series

Wednesday, 23 Mar 2016

Body of Water: Using the Arts to Tell Iowa's Water Story - Performance & Discussion
7:00 PM – Stephens Auditorium - Body of Water is a multimedia production using video, music and dance to tell the story of water usage and quality within our watersheds and communities. The performance-based project was conceived, choreographed and directed by Luther College dance professor Jane Hawley in conjunction with her Jodi Enos-Berlage, a biology professor at Luther who conducts water quality research. Originally presented in Decorah in 2015, the production highlights how small actions by individuals accumulate into a powerful force, producing an outcome that benefits all. A facilitated dialogue will follow the 1-hour performance. Part of the 10th Annual Iowa Water Conference An exhibit of posters created by the Ames High School Bluestem Institute will precede the performance, 6:00-7:00pm, in the upper lobby of the auditorium. The Lexicon of Sustainability photo-mosaic posters define of water quality from a technical, social, and cultural perspective.

Monday, 21 Mar 2016

The Diversity and Evolution of the World's Languages - Asya Pereltsvaig
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Linguist Asya Pereltsvaig studies how languages evolve, their commonalities, differences, and what they can tell us about our human past. She received her PhD in Linguistics from McGill University in Montreal and has taught at Yale, Cornell and Stanford, as well as at several European Universities. Her areas of specialization include Slavic languages, syntax and typology, and historical linguistics, and her general academic interests include languages, history and genetics, and the relationship between them. Her most recent book is Languages of the World: An Introduction and The Indo-European Controversy: Facts and Fallacies in Historical Linguistics, which she coauthored with Martin W. Lewis. Quentin Johnson Lecture in Linguistics

Monday, 7 Mar 2016

Redefining Global Security - Mary Robinson
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Mary Robinson, the first woman elected president of Ireland, just completed her term as the United Nations Special Envoy for Climate Change. She is founder and president of the Mary Robinson Foundation-Climate Justice, providing leadership, education and advocacy to secure global justice for those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change - the poor, the disempowered and the marginalized. She continues to serve as a member of the Elders, a highly respected independent group of world leaders focused on peace and human rights and founded by Nelson Mandela. She previously served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the United Nations Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa. Her memoir, Everybody Matters: My Life Giving Voice, chronicles her career as a young lawyer crusading for women's rights. Women's Leadership Series and World Affairs Series

Friday, 4 Mar 2016

ISCORE Keynote Address - Barbara Love
12:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Barbara Love is Professor Emerti of Social Justice Education at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and speaks widely on how institutions deal with multicultural organizational development and social change. Love is a former teacher with an academic background in history and political science and has worked closely with schools and school systems throughout the United States and abroad. She also consults internationally on empowerment of women, and has published on such issues as internalized racism, self-knowledge for social justice educators, building alliances for change, and black identity development. The 2016 Iowa State Conference on Race and Ethnicity, ISCORE, Keynote Address

Thursday, 3 Mar 2016

What Americans Are Eating and a Strategy for Change - Cindy Goody
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Cindy Goody, Senior Director of the Menu Innovation Team at McDonald's USA, develops plans that align with McDonald's U.S. food and nutrition strategy, provides nutritional science expertise, and oversees McDonald's nutritional information development and communication processes. Prior to joining McDonald's USA, she served as a retail and clinical dietitian for Hy-Vee Food Stores. She has been actively involved in the American Dietetic Association and is the author and editor of its professional reference Cultural Food Practices. She has also served as a faculty member for the Culinary Institute of America and the Harvard School of Medicine Continuing Medical Education. A former Peace Corps Volunteer, Goody earned a BS and MS from Iowa State. She holds a PhD and MBA from the University of Iowa. National Affairs Series: When American Values Are In Conflict.