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Past Events

Monday, 14 Apr 2014

Government Spying, Threats to Privacy and Your Rights Online - A panel discussion
6:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - April Glaser, a staff activist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, will join a panel discussion that examines the National Security Agency's spying and the future of journalism, as well as the importance and challenges of adopting privacy tools online. Iowa State panel members include Jane Fritsch,Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication; Zayira Jordan, Human Computer Interaction; and Nik Kinkel Digital Freedom Group founder. Jonathan Tsou, Philosophy and Religious Studies, will moderate. 2014 First Amendment Day Celebration CryptoParty at 7:15 p.m., Sun Room, Memorial Union Bring your own digital device to the Digital Freedom Group's CryptoParty. Members of the Digital Freedom Group will help you experiment with and install software and other freedom-enhancing tools on your own devices. These tools will help protect you from surveillance when using your digital devices.

Iowa Civil Rights & the First Amendment - An afternoon with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission
3:00 PM – Campanile Room, Memorial Union - Join members of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission to explore the First Amendment as a foundation of civil rights. The afternoon opens with a 3:00 pm keynote talk, Civil Rights Pioneer: Iowa’s History of Advancing Justice for All Iowans. Two breakout sessions will follow: Let’s Talk about More than Sex - Gender Identity and Civil Rights in Iowa (4:00 pm) and Fair Housing for Everyone (5:00 pm). No registration required. First Amendment Day Celebration

Saturday, 12 Apr 2014

Canceled! - VEISHEA Comedy with David Koechner
10:00 PM – Stephens Auditorium - Actor and comedian David Koechner is best known as Champ Kind in the Anchorman films and Todd Packer on NBC's The Office.

Thursday, 10 Apr 2014

Canceled! - An Evening with Kristian Bush of Sugarland
8:30 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - As part of the famed Sugarland duo, Kristian Bush has sold more than 22 million albums and received honors from the Grammys, Academy of Country Music, and the Country Music Association.

Whatever Shall Remain? A Look at Art and Permanence - Melanie Vote
7:00 PM – Kocimski Auditorium, 101 Design - Iowa State graduate Melanie Vote was a visiting artist at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Art in 2013. She has taught drawing and painting at numerous institutions, including the Pratt Institute and the New School, and her work has been exhibited throughout the United States, Mexico and South Korea. Vote received a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant in 2007 and was awarded residencies with Abu Dhabi Art Hub in 2013, Jentel in 2009, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts in 2007, and the Vermont Studio Center, with a full fellowship from the Dodge Foundation, in 2002. She earned her BFA in craft design from Iowa State in 1995 and MFA in painting from the New York Academy of Art in 1998.

Wednesday, 9 Apr 2014

Local Adaptation and Life History Evolution in Monkey Flowers - John Willis
8:00 PM – 125 Kildee Hall - John Willis is a professor of biology at Duke University. His research program focuses on the evolutionary forces that maintain diversity in plant populations and examines how plants adapt to their local environments. Much of Dr. Willis's work utilizes the emerging model system of Mimulus guttatus (yellow monkey flowers), a species complex that is distributed broadly across the western United States. Dr. Willis is a renowned expert in plant evolutionary genetics and author of hundreds of manuscripts published in top scientific journals such as Science, Nature and PNAS. Charles E. Bessey Lecture A reception will precede the lecture at 7:30 pm.

What Can the Atheist Movement Learn from the Gay Movement? - Greta Christina
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Greta Christina is one of the most widely-read and well-respected bloggers in the atheist blogosphere. She is author of Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless, an Amazon bestseller in the Atheism category. Her writing has appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers, and anthologies, including Ms., Skeptical Inquirer, the Chicago Sun-Times, and the anthology Everything You Know About God Is Wrong. She has been writing professionally since 1989 on topics that include sexuality and sex-positivity, LGBT issues, politics and culture.

Tuesday, 8 Apr 2014

Committed to the Core - Charlie Wittmack
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Charlie Wittmack is an Iowan who has twice summited Mount Everest and is the only person in history to complete the World Triathlon. He is an explorer and adventurer, who trained and prepared for the expedition for more than fifteen years. Formerly an attorney, Wittmack is now executive director of Above & Beyond Cancer, a Des Moines-based organization headed by oncologist Richard Deming. He leads cancer survivors and others on life-changing adventures around the world. VEISHEA 2014

VEISHEA Opening Ceremony - Simon Estes
5:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Simon Estes, the world-renowned opera singer, has sung for 6 Presidents of the United States as well as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the late Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa. He is also committed to philanthropic work, including his own foundation that is partnering with the United Nations Foundation to raise funds to help eliminate malaria in Africa. He teaches music at Iowa State and is the 2014 VEISHEA Parade Grand Marshal. A reception with refreshments will precede his talk in the Sun Room, 4-5 pm. Student Organization Awards, including Adviser of the Year and Student Leader of the Year, will be presented.

Monday, 7 Apr 2014

God Loves Uganda - Documentary & Discussion
8:00 PM – South Ballroom, Memorial Union - God Loves Uganda is an exploration of the evangelical campaign to change African culture with values imported from America. The film follows American and Ugandan religious leaders fighting "sexual immorality" and missionaries trying to convince Ugandans to follow Biblical law. Filmmaker Roger Ross Williams exposes the missionary movement in Uganda as an outgrowth of Africa's colonialist past and a twenty-first century crusade to recreate a continent of people in the image and likeness of America's most extreme fundamentalists. 90 minutes.