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Past Events
Monday, 31 Mar 2014
Interior Mythologies - Literary Readings & Discussion - Natalie Diaz & K. L. Cook
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Natalie Diaz is the author of the poetry collection When My Brother Was an Aztec. She is a recipient of the Nimrod/Hardman Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, the Narrative Poetry Prize, and a Lannan Literary Fellowship. Diaz is Mojave and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian community. She earned a BA from Old Dominion University, where she received a full athletic scholarship. She played professional basketball in Europe and Asia before returning to Old Dominion to earn an MFA. Diaz lives in Mohave Valley, Arizona, where she works with the last speakers of Mojave and directs a language revitalization program.
K. L. Cook is the author of three books of fiction. His most recent book, Love Songs for the Quarantined, won the Spokane Prize for Short Fiction. His novel, The Girl from Charnelle, won The Willa Award for Contemporary Fiction, and his first book, Last Call, won the inaugural Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction. He is an associate professor of English at Iowa State and teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing and Environment.
Part of the Wildness, Wilderness & the Environmental Imagination Series
Battle Ground Road Drummers & Meskwaki Nation Dancers - Performance
6:30 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - The Battle Ground Road drum group and Meskwaki Nation Dancers will share traditional and contemporary songs and dances. Battle Ground Road draws its name from the gravel road leading to the Meskwaki Powwow Grounds near Tama, Iowa. The group performs regularly at powwows across the Upper Midwest. Their performance precedes the 2014 Richard Thompson Memorial Lecture, delivered by Walter Echo-Hawk.
Iowa State University's ROTC Joint Color Guard will join members of the Robert Morgan Post 701 from Tama, Iowa, to present the colors at 6:50 pm.
In the Light of Justice - Walter Echo-Hawk
6:30 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Walter Echo-Hawk is a lawyer, tribal judge, scholar and activist, with legal experience that includes cases involving Native American religious freedom, prisoner rights, water rights, treaty rights, and reburial/repatriation rights. A Native American rights attorney since 1973, he was instrumental in the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (1990) and the American Indian Religious Freedom Act Amendments (1994). Echo-Hawk has written extensively about the rise of modern Indian nations. He is the author of In the Courts of the Conqueror: The 10 Worst Indian Law Cases Ever Decided and, most recently, In the Light of Justice: The Rise of Human Rights in Native America & the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.The 2014 Richard Thompson Memorial Lecture
The Battle Ground Road drum group and Meskwaki Nation Dancers will perform at 6:30 p.m., preceding Walter Echo-Hawk's 7:00 p.m. talk. Iowa State University's ROTC Joint Color Guard will join members of the Robert Morgan Post 701 from Tama, Iowa, to present the colors at 6:50 pm.
Language, Poetry and Resilience - Natalie Diaz
3:30 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Join us for a moderated conversation with poet Natalie Diaz about the process of writing poems, about the place of myth in writing, and about the language revitalization program she directs at Fort Mojave, where she works and teaches with the last Elder speakers of the Mojave language. Natalie Diaz is the author of the poetry collection When My Brother Was an Aztec. She earned a BA from Old Dominion University, where she received a full athletic scholarship. She played professional basketball in Europe and Asia before returning to Old Dominion to earn an MFA. Diaz is an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian community. Part of the Wildness, Wilderness & the Environmental Imagination Series
Sunday, 30 Mar 2014
The Brief History of the Dead - Kevin Brockmeier
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Kevin Brockmeier is the author of three novels, The Brief History of the Dead, The Truth About Celia, and The Illumination. He has also published two short story collections, Things That Fall from the Sky and The View from the Seventh Layer. Brockmeier was named one of Granta magazine's Best Young American Novelists. He is also the recipient of the Borders Original Voices Award, three O. Henry Awards, the PEN USA Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an NEA Grant. His work has appeared in such publications as The New Yorker, The Georgia Review, The Best American Short Stories, and The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. Part of the Wildness, Wilderness & Environmental Imagination Series.
FLYWAY Magazine's "Home Voices" Reading
3:30 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Writers from the MFA Program in Creative Writing & Environment read from their prize-winning work: Lindsay D'Andrea, "Rock Wall, New Hampshire," and Dana Thomann, "Flood Gap." Elizabeth Bradfield, author of Approaching Ice, selected this year's winning pieces. Part of the Wildness, Wilderness & the Environmental Imagination Series
Rescuing the World: Ecological Disaster in the Young Adult Novel - Panel Discussion
2:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Panelists will discuss themes of ecological disaster in such books as The Hunger Games, The Uglies, and The Ship Breakers as well as how the heroes and heroines in young adult fiction are often forced to grow up in a world damaged and corrupted by previous generations. Panelists include Tanvia Rastogi, Teen Librarian at the Ames Public Library, and four faculty members from the Iowa State Department of English: Donna Niday, Charissa Menefee, and David Zimmerman. Part of the Wildness, Wilderness & the Environmental Imagination Series
Friday, 28 Mar 2014
Gender, Sexuality, Dress and Identity - Kelly Reddy-Best
3:00 PM – 142 West Lagomarcino - Kelly Reddy-Best is assistant professor of apparel design at San Francisco State University, where she studies the interrelationships of gender, sexuality, dress and identity. She is currently working on projects that examine experiences of discrimination, anxiety and stress as they relate to appearance among individuals in the LGBTQ community. Kelly Reddy-Best teaches courses on draping, apparel construction, advanced apparel design techniques, collection development, hand and computer fashion illustration, and the history of dress.
Women, Politics and Leadership: Taking Risks is "Ladylike" - Claire McCaskill
12:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Sen. Claire McCaskill became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Missouri in 2006. She has spent much of her career in public service, serving six years in the Missouri State House of Representatives and seven as Missouri state auditor. McCaskill began her career as an assistant prosecutor in Kansas City. She was one of the few women who handled criminal cases and later became the first woman elected Jackson County prosecutor. She is serving her second term in the U.S. Senate, where she is recognized for working on government fiscal accountability, confronting sexual assault in the military and as a champion of reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act. She serves as a senior member of the Armed Services Committee and was named chair of the Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection. Mary Louise Smith Chair for Women and Politics
Thursday, 27 Mar 2014
Finding Your Passion: Publishing and DOCTOR WHO - Lars Pearson
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Lars Pearson, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Hugo Award-winning Mad Norwegian Press, provides an overview of his nineteen-year career in geeky magazines, newspapers and book publishing, and offers advice for budding journalists, writers and editors. Pearson will also share how his obsession with the BBC-produced television show Doctor Who led him to become one of the foremost experts in North America on the science fiction series, and just how many of his fellow Gen-Xers burned out taking the safe path and not following their passions.