News Releases: Iowa State University

QUICK LINKS
Today's News
News releases
ISU homepage

NEWS RELEASE

01-26-01

Contacts:
Pat Miller, Lectures, (515) 294-9935
Steve Sullivan, News Service, (515) 294-3720

ISU LECTURES SERIES LOOKS AT 'GROWING UP IN AMERICA'

AMES, Iowa – An exploration of childhood and coming of age will be the focus when the Iowa State University's 2001 Institute On National Affairs gets under way next month in the Memorial Union.

Inspired by the theme "Growing Up In America," the lectures cover everything from great grandparents to parents of gay children, and from violence to addiction. All the lectures are free and open to the public.

ISU professor Peter Martin starts things off talking about "What Does Great-Grandma Think About This?" Martin, head of the gerontology program and professor of human development and family studies, will speak at noon Tuesday, Feb. 6, in the Pioneer Room.

Betty DeGeneres, mother of actress and comedian Ellen DeGeneres, talks about being "Just a Mom" that evening in the Sun Room. She has written "Love, Ellen: A Mother-Daughter Journey" and "Just a Mom," which features gay and lesbian children and their relationships with their parents.

"The Impact of Mandatory Sentencing on Families" is the title of a talk by Polk County Juvenile Court associate Judge Connie Cohen at noon Wednesday, Feb. 7, in the Pioneer Room.

She will be followed that night by James Garbarino, director of the Family Life Development Center and human development professor at Cornell University. Garbarino, author of "Lost Boys: Why Our Sons Turn Violent and How We Can Save Them," will lecture on the same topic at 8 p.m. in the Sun Room.

Other highlights of the institute include Stephen Bloom, who will talk about his book, "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America." The book focuses on changes facing a small, predominantly Lutheran, Iowa town after 150 Lubavither Jews settle there and buy the local slaughterhouse.

Jean Kilbourne, a nationally recognized expert on addictions, gender issues and the media, will examine "Deadly Persuasion: Advertising and Addiction." Kilbourne served as an adviser to former Surgeons General C. Everett Koop and Antonia Novello. Her first film, "Killing Us Softly: Advertising's Image of Women" is among the most popular educational films of all time.

Ross D. Parke will wind up the institute in April with a talk on "Fatherhood." Parke, director of the Center for Family Studies at the University of California, Riverside, has a book with the same name.

Iowa State University Institute on National Affairs
"Growing Up in America"
Feb. 6-April 3
Memorial Union

Tuesday, February 6

Noon, Lecture, "What Does Great-Grandma Think About This?" Peter Martin, ISU human development and family studies, Pioneer Room.
8 p.m., Lecture, "Just a Mom," Betty DeGeneres, mother of actress and comedian Ellen DeGeneres, Sun Room.

Wednesday, February 7

Noon, Lecture, "The Impact of Mandatory Sentencing on Families," Connie Cohen, associate judge, Polk County Juvenile Court, Pioneer Room.
8 p.m., Lecture, "Lost Boys: Why Our Sons Turn Violent and How We Can Save Them," James Garbarino, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., Sun Room.

Monday, February 19

8 p.m., Lecture, "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America," Stephen Bloom, University of Iowa, Sun Room.

Wednesday, February 21

8 p.m., Lecture, "Emerging Families: How Family Relationships Develop Across Generations," Rand Conger, ISU sociology and psychology, Sun Room.

Thursday, February 22

8 p.m., Lecture, "Deadly Persuasion: Advertising and Addiction," Jean Kilbourne, author and expert on addictions, gender issues and the media, Sun Room.

Thursday, March 22

8 p.m., Lecture, "Family Diversity," Vonnie McLoyd, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Pioneer Room.

Monday, April 2

8 p.m., Lecture, "Reinventing Childhood," David Elkind, Tufts University, Medford, Mass., Sun Room.

Tuesday, April 3

8:15 p.m., Lecture, "Fatherhood," Ross Parke, University of California, Riverside, Sun Room.

-30-