Browse All Upcoming Lectures

The Problem of Evil - Peter Kreeft
8:00 PM @ Stephens Auditorium - Peter Kreeft is a professor of philosophy at Boston College and the author of over forty books, including Making Sense Out of Suffering. His writings tackle questions related to the nature of suffering, the existence of God, and ecumenism. He is a regular contributor to several Christian publications, and his first novel, An Ocean Full of Angels, will be published next year. Kreeft earned a PhD from Fordham University.

Recovering from An Eating Disorder and Falling in Love with Life - Jenni Schaefer
7:00 PM @ Great Hall, Memorial Union - Jenni Schaefer, a recovered bulimic, has helped change the face of eating disorder awareness and recovery. She coauthored her first book, Life Without Ed, with her psychotherapist, who taught her to treat her eating disorder as a relationship rather than an illness or condition. Schaefer actually named her anorexia/bulimia "Ed," an acronym for "eating disorder." Her new book, Goodbye Ed, Hello Me: Recover from Your Eating Disorder and Fall in Love with Life, tackles the transition from recovery to liberation. Jenni Schaefer is a consultant with the Center for Change in Orem, Utah, and a contributing author to Chicken Soup for the Recovering Soul. She is a regular guest on national radio and television, including appearances on Dr. Phil and Entertainment Tonight. Part of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week.

Strange as This Weather Has Been: A Reading - Ann Pancake
7:00 PM @ Sun Room, Memorial Union - Ann Pancake’s first novel, Strange as This Weather Has Been, features a southern West Virginia family devastated by mountaintop removal mining. Based on interviews and real events, the novel was one of Kirkus Review's Top Ten Fiction Books of 2007, won the 2007 Weatherford Award, and was a finalist for the 2008 Orion Book Award. Pancake's collection of short stories, Given Ground, won the 2000 Bakeless Award, and she has also received a Whiting Award, an NEA Grant, and a Pushcart Prize. She currently teaches in the low-residency MFA program at Pacific Lutheran University. Part of the Eco-Voices Series.

Innovation and Ethics - Yvon Chouinard
8:00 PM @ Great Hall, Memorial Union - Yvon Chouinard is founder and owner of Patagonia, a maker of environmentally conscious, high-performance outdoor apparel. A leader in corporate social responsibility, Chouinard capitalized on his company’s success in the late 1980s to tackle the looming environmental crisis. He instituted the Patagonia Earth Tax, which pledges 1 percent of company sales to the preservation and restoration of the natural environment. And in 2001 he helped start One Percent For The Planet, an alliance of businesses that contribute at least 1 percent of their net annual sales to approved environmental organizations. Chouinard, who began in business by designing, manufacturing, and distributing rock climbing equipment, is also the author of Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman. A reception and poster display will precede the lecture at 7:00 p.m. in the Oak Room. Part of the National Affairs Series and the Iowa State University Symposium on Sustainability.

Iowa State University Symposium on Sustainability
All Day @ Great Hall, Memorial Union - A second daylong university-wide symposium is being planned as part of Iowa State's Live Green! initiative. Last year more than 300 faculty, staff and students turned out for the Symposium on Enhancing Sustainability, with keynote speaker and Berea College president Larry Shinn. Check back for a full schedule of events and participants.

Event Being Planned
8:00 PM @ South Ballroom, Memorial Union - Event to be announced.

The Relevance of John Henry Cardinal Newman - Denis Robinson
8:00 PM @ Sun Room, Memorial Union - Cardinal Newman is considered the patron of higher education and was recently beatified, a step toward canonization as an official saint in the Catholic Church. Fr. Denis Robinson is president-rector of Saint Meinrad School of Theology and coauthor of Religious Imagination and the Pluralist Theology of Religion. A Benedictine monk, he is also an assistant professor of systematic theology. He attended Saint Meinrad College and School of Theology, earning a bachelor's degree in philosophy and a Master of Divinity. After serving as the parochial vicar for the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Memphis, he joined the Saint Meinrad. Father Denis also attended the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, where he received a master’s degree in theology, a licentiate in sacred theology, and doctorates in sacred theology and philosophy. Msgr. James A. Supple Lecture.

Wisdom of the Last Farmer - David Mas Masumoto
7:00 PM @ Sun Room, Memorial Union - The author of eight books, David Mas Masumoto grows organic peaches, nectarines, and grapes on his eighty-acre farm in Del Rey, California. He is perhaps best-known for Epitaph for a Peach: Four Seasons on My Family Farm. His latest book is Wisdom of the Last Farmer: Harvesting Legacies From the Land. Masumoto is a third generation Japanese American and self-described artist farmer, capturing the stories of family and the land through literature. Every year he hosts an Elberta Peach Tree Adoption program in hopes of educating others about the joy of heirloom produce and the realities of organic farming. The 2010 Shivvers Memorial Lecture.

Portion Size Me: Why We Eat More Than We Think - James Painter
7:00 PM @ Sun Room, Memorial Union - Move over Morgan Spurlock. Nutrition expert Jim Painter says it's not so much what you eat but how much you eat, and he aims to prove it in his documentary, Portion Size Me, where he put two of his students on a thirty-day fast food diet. Painter argues most people are not aware of their volume of food intake, a major contributor to over-consumption. He discusses the increase in the size of food portions over the last two decades and ways that food portions can be controlled. Painter is chair of the School of Family and Consumer Sciences at Eastern Illinois University and has over a decade of experience in the food service and hospitality industry. He earned his PhD from University of Illinois, Urbana.

Event Being Planned
8:00 PM @ Great Hall, Memorial Union - Event to be announced.