2011-12 Contemporary Issues Lecture Series

Lectures are free and open to the public, no tickets required. All lectures take place in Young Auditorium at 7:00 p.m. Contact Susan Johnson 262-472-4766 johnsons@uww.edu

James Workman
"H2Ownership: A Fresh Approach to Unlocking the Three Paradoxes of Water"
Monday, October 3, 2011
James Workman is an award-winning journalist and author of Heart of Dryness. He served as an advisor shaping national and global policy under US Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Nelson Mandela. Workman spent a decade working with the last free Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert, the inspiration forHeart of Dryness. The book was awarded the Society of Environmental Journalists 2010 Rachel Carson Environment Book Award. His new business translates the Bushmen's proven coping mechanisms into a Web 2.0, online exchange platform for earning, owning, accumulating and trading water efficiency credits, or EcoShares™. His articles have been published in The New Republic, Foreign Service Magazine, Washington Monthly, Business Day and many others.

Reza Aslan
"Ten Years Later: Fighting Islamophobia and Understanding Muslims"
Monday, November 7, 2011
Reza Aslan is the author of the international bestseller No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, which has been named by Blackwell Publishers as one of the 100 most important books of the last decade. He is also the author of How to Win a Cosmic War, a contributing editor to The Daily Beast, and a member of many prominent foreign relations and policy councils. He is also the editor of Tablet and Pen, a literary anthology that uses the arts to bridge the gap of understanding between East and West. He has degrees in Religion from Santa Clara University, Harvard, and UC Santa Barbara, as well as a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa, where he was named the Truman Capote Fellow in Fiction.

Sonia Nazario
Campus/Community Reading Initiative
"Enrique's Journey: The Story ofBoy's Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with his Mother"
Monday, November 28, 2011
Sonia Nazario has spent 20 years reporting and writing about social issues. In 2003, her story of a Honduran boy's struggle to find his mother in the U.S., entitled "Enrique's Journey," won more than a dozen awards, among them the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, the George Polk Award for International Reporting, the Grand Prize of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Guillermo Martinez-Marquez Award for Overall Excellence. In 1994, she won a George Polk Award for Local Reporting for a series about hunger among schoolchildren in California.Nazario has been named among the most influential Latinos by Hispanic Business Magazine. Shehas a master's degree in Latin American studies from the University of California, Berkeley andan honorary doctorate from Mount St. Mary's College. http://www.enriquesjourney.com

Kayla Williams
"Love My Rifle More Than You: Young and Female in the U.S. Army"
Monday, February 6, 2012
Kayla Williams is a former sergeant and Arabic linguist in a military intelligence unit of the U.S Army's 101st Airborne Division. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Grace After Fire, a senior adviser of VoteVets.org and she regularly blogs at The Huffington Post and VetVoice.com. Williams has appeared on numerous media outlets including CNN, Fox, NPR and HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher," to discuss the challenges faced by women serving in the armed forces and the additional challenges they face re-adjusting to civilian life as veterans. She recently earned a Masters degree in International Affairs with a focus on the Middle East from American University, and continues to work on issues related to U.S. policy and the treatment of veterans.

Marion Nestle
Distinguished Scholar Lecture
"Obesity Wars: The Food Industry vs. Public Health"
Monday, March 12, 2012
Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health and Professor of Sociology at New York University. She is the award winning author of What to Eat, Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Heath and Safe Food: The Politics of Food Safety.From 1986-88, she was senior nutrition policy advisor in the Department of Health and Human Services and managing editor of the 1988 Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health. She has been a member of the FDA Food Advisory Committee and Science Board, the USDA/DHHS Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, and American Cancer Society committees that issue dietary guidelines for cancer prevention. She writes a monthly Food Matters columnfor the San Francisco Chronicle, and blogs at www.foodpolitics.com. Her degrees include a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition from the University of California, Berkeley.

Allan Gribben
Co-sponsoredwith the UW-Whitewater Big Read Program
"Mark Twain's Racial Relevance"
DATE: April 9, 2012
Allan Gribben isa nationally recognized Mark Twain scholar who sparked considerable controversywhen he published versions ofMark Twain's Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finnin 2011 that removed a racial pejorativeas an attempt to reverse the trend of school districtsremoving both books from their reading lists. Gribben cofounded the Mark Twain Circle of America, compiled Mark Twain's Library: A Reconstruction, and coedited Mark Twain on the Move: A Travel Reader. Gribben has written numerous essays about Mark Twain's life and image. He teaches on the English faculty of Auburn University at Montgomery where he was the Distinguished Research Professor from 1998 to 2001 and the Dr. Guinevera A. Nance Alumni Professor from 2006 to 2009. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.