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Blurring the Boundaries
7:00 PM – 2019 Morrill Hall - Dan Corson is an award-winning public artist from Seattle who uses his background in art and theatrical design to create installations filled with drama, light and engaging viewer interactions. Corson will discuss several of his past, present and upcoming projects.

The Language Hoax: Why the World Looks the Same in Any Language - John McWhorter
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - John McWhorter is the author of numerous books on how language shapes the way we think, including What Language Is (and What It Isn't and What It Could Be) and Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: Untold Stories in the History of English. In his new book, The Language Hoax, he challenges the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, arguing that language reflects culture and worldview, not the other way around. McWhorter earned his PhD in linguistics from Stanford University and taught previously at Cornell University and the University of California, Berkeley, before joining Columbia University, where he teaches linguistics, American studies, philosophy, and music. He also writes for TIME Magazine. The Quentin Johnson Lecture in Linguistics

What Was in the Water? Toxic Dumping in Toms River - Dan Fagin
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Dan Fagin is an investigative reporter, prize-winning science journalist, and the author of Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation, which won the 2014 Pulitzer for General Nonfiction and the National Academies Science Book Award. Fagin weaves together science and statistical analysis with investigative reporting to tell this community's story of industrial pollution, its subsequent cancer epidemic, and a decades-long fight for answers. Dan Fagin is a professor of journalism at New York University and director of the graduate program in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting. He is also the author of Toxic Deception: How the Chemical Industry Manipulates Science, Bends the Law and Endangers Your Health. Part of the Creative Writing Program's Environmental Imagination Series

Researching & Reporting Complex Environmental Stories - A Conversation with Dan Fagin
12:00 PM – Pioneer Room, Memorial Union - Join Dan Fagin, author of Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation, for an informal discussion about science writing and writing about the environment. Fagin is an award-winning investigative and scientific journalist who directs New York University's graduate program in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting. His book Toms River won the the 2014 Pulitzer for General Nonfiction and the National Academies Science Book Award. Kelly Slivka, a graduate student in the MFA Program in Creative Writing and Environment, will moderate the discussion.

From Wall Street to the Front Lines of Women's Health - Suzanna de Baca
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Suzanna de Baca is the new president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland. She brings to the position more than 20 years of executive leadership at public, privately held and not-for-profit organizations, most recently as vice president of wealth strategies at Ameriprise Financial. Suzanna de Baca has been recognized in national media as an industry expert in finance, with particular expertise in women's and LGBT issues, and the intersection of health and money. An industry veteran, she has held senior-level management positions at several leading financial services firms. Raised on a farm near Huxley, de Baca received her BA from Iowa State and then completed her MBA studies at the Harvard University School of Business Administration.

This Is Sparta! Ancient Government in the Modern Classroom - Mike Lippman
4:00 PM – Gallery, Memorial Union - What would happen if your classroom functioned as a true democracy? Would your classmates prioritize individual choice or put aside personal preferences for the greater good? Professor Mike Lippman discusses a new method of experiential learning that allows students to see how the material learned in their Classics courses applies to their daily experiences, both as students and citizens. Lippman is Assistant Professor of the Practice in the Department of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. He has been a finalist for several national and regional collegiate-level teaching awards.

A Working Artist's Life - Lisa Orr
7:00 PM – Kocimski Auditorium, College of Design - Studio artist Lisa Orr will discuss the business of being a self-supporting artist and the evolution of her studio work. For thirty years she has been a professional potter and student of ceramics. She spent many years developing her work and selling it at regional shows before returning to academia, eventually earning an MFA at New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Orr continues her ceramics career in her home state of Texas. She also creates public art through commissions and has co-produced several educational videos. Her distinctive work has earned her many awards, including a Fulbright scholarship and an NEA fellowship.

National Security and Human Rights - Panel Discussion
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Panelists will discuss how the United States can maintain national security ethically and legally, while managing the delicate balance of national security, foreign policy, and human rights. Specific topics will include the Senate Study of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program and drone strikes within the terms of engagement adopted by the Obama administration. Panelists include Bioethics Program director and philosophy professor Clark Wolf and political science professors Jim McCormick and Alex Tuckness. World Affairs Series.

Caterpillar's Journey to Sustainability - Tim Lindsey
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Tim Lindsey, Global Director of Sustainable Development at Caterpillar, has over thirty years experience associated with helping organizations become more sustainable by improving processes, products, and systems with respect to their energy, water, and materials utilization. He is an accomplished program and project manager with experience in multiple industrial sectors, including: energy processing, food processing, agriculture, biofuels, chemical processing, electronics, machining, metal forming, metal finishing, and die-casting. Dr. Lindsey has helped hundreds of corporate and public sector interests improve their economic, environmental and social sustainability through state-of-the-art training and technical assistance services. He is a nationally recognized expert regarding the development of techniques to facilitate the implementation and diffusion of innovative alternative energy and sustainability practices. He has produced multiple publications on energy efficiency, alternative energy, alternative fuels development and sustainability. University Symposium on Sustainability

Green Chemistry: Helping Create a Safer, More Sustainable Future - John Warner
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - A reception and poster session will precede the lecture at 7pm in the South Ballroom. John Warner is one of the founders of green chemistry, which seeks to reduce or eliminate the use of hazardous materials at the design stage of a materials process. His work has had implications for a variety of products and manufacturing processes, from computer chips to paint and biodegradable plastics to cholesterol medicine. Warner started the world's first green chemistry PhD program at the University of Massachusetts-Boston in 2004 and is co-author of the seminal text Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice. In 2008, he chaired the Science Advisory Committee of California's Green Chemistry Initiative, which recently released landmark policy recommendations seeking to eliminate or reduce the use of toxic substances in products and manufacturing processes. He is currently president and chief technology officer of the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry, which he founded with Jim Babcock in 2007. University Symposium on Sustainability Keynote Address