Alison Cooke, chair of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Steering Group on Future Climate: Engineering Solutions, will discuss energy and climate change on April 24 in Sussman Theater at 7:15 p.m. She will discuss various efforts to address greenhouse gas mitigation and investigate the options from a social perspective, but through an engineering lens—looking at what opportunities are most realistic. The event is sponsored by the Drake University Environmental Science and Sustainability Department. It is free and open to the public.

— David Courard-Hauri, Environmental Science and Policy

A panel on the future of trade will take place Tuesday, April 17, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in Parents Hall South, Olmsted Center. Panelists include Jim McCaughan, Bob Baur, and Rachel Paine Caufield. Matthew Mitchell, associate professor of international business, will moderate the panel.

Jim McCaughan is an executive with the Principal Financial Group. He is president, global asset management, and chief executive officer of Principal Global Investors. Bob Baur is executive director and chief global economist for Principal Global Investors. In these capacities, he establishes and directs global economic policy and strategy, oversees and conducts macroeconomic and quantitative research, forecasts economic trends and anticipates market movements, and advises the investment staff in making economically sound investment decisions. McCaughan and Baur are frequently quoted by the financial news media and appear regularly on CNBC and Bloomberg Television, among others. Rachel Paine Caufield is an associate professor of political science at Drake. She teaches courses on American politics, with special attention to political institutions, and has coordinated candidate visits and led efforts to host national presidential debates and forums with ABC, CBS, CNN, and Fusion TV.

— Denise Ganpat, Center for Global Citizenship

Nearly 300 singers and instrumentalists will perform Beethoven’s dramatic and exciting “Mass in C Major” on Saturday, April 21, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, April 22, at 3 p.m. at St. Ambrose Cathedral, located at 6th Avenue and High Street in downtown Des Moines. The concert will feature all four Drake choruses, a faculty/student orchestra, and four student soloists: Laurel Cramer, soprano; Mollie Lawler, mezzo-soprano; Trevor Ross, tenor; and Paxton Gillespie, baritone. Tickets are $17 for non-students and $7 for students and can be purchased through Friday, April 20, online or at the Drake Fine Arts Box Office by calling 515-271-3841.  If tickets remain, they will be sold at the door, beginning 45 minutes prior to the start of the concert. For further information, contact Aimee Beckmann-Collier, director of choral studies, at aimee.beckmann-collier@drake.edu or 515-271-2841.

— Aimee Beckmann-Collier, college of Arts and Sciences

The Comparison Project presents a lecture by Michael O’Neill, miracle investigator, author, and creator of the website MiracleHunter.com, on Thursday, April 19, at 7 p.m. in Sussman Theater.

O’Neill will examine Catholicism’s most famous—and highly approved—modern miracle: The visions of the Virgin Mary being reported by three shepherd children at the Cova da Iria in Fátima, Portugal in 1917. These events, including the purported great “Sun Miracle” and the inexplicable healings that led to the canonization of the visionaries as the youngest saints in history, provide a perfect backdrop for understanding the centuries-old mechanisms and stringent criteria for investigating and validating claims of the supernatural used by the Catholic Church even in today’s modern world.

O’Neill, a graduate of Stanford University and member of the Mariological Society of America, was the consultant for National Geographic’s December 2015 cover story and map about the Virgin Mary, “The Most Powerful Woman in the World.” His books include Exploring the Miraculous (Our Sunday Visitor 2015), 365 Days with Mary (Salt Media 2016), and 20 Answers: Apparitions & Revelations (Catholic Answers 2017).

— Monique Rodriguez, College of Arts and Sciences

Alexander Weinstein, winner of Drake English Department’s 2017 Emerging Author Award, will read from his work and engage in a question and answer session on April 12 at 7 p.m. in Medbury Lounge. Weinstein is the author of Children of the New World, a collection of speculative, wryly dystopian stories that imagine futures near and distant in which technology, globalism, and individualism have transformed characters’ lives and relationships to one another and to their environment.

The event is free and open to the public. Attendees will have the opportunity to encounter writing on the leading edge of American fiction and ask questions and engage with Weinstein on the imagined realities his writing presents.

— Craig Owens, Department of English

Track & Field
Jim Duncan Invitational
Friday, April 13, at 3:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 14, at 8:30 a.m.
Drake Stadium

Softball
Drake vs. Valparaiso
Saturday, April 14, at 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. (doubleheader)
Sunday, April 15, at 11 a.m.
Buel Field

For more information, contact the Drake Athletics Ticket Office at 515-271-3647 or visit www.godrakebulldogs.com.

— Ryan Harris, Athletics

The Archie Boe Lecture Series presents “Practical Uses of Genomic Data by Life Insurers and the Issues Involved” on April 24 at 6:15 p.m. in Levitt Hall, Old Main. The lecture is open to the public and sponsored by EMC Center for Insurance and Risk Management. For more information, contact Lisa Boes at lisa.boes@drake.edu.

— Lisa Boes, College of Business & Public Administration

The north lobby of Meredith Hall will host “Fresh Perspectives,” a photo exhibit featuring the photos and thoughts of local high school students, through the end of April. The show is a product of CultureALL, a Des Moines non-profit that encourages communication across difference through cultural programming.

— Kathleen Richardson, School of Journalism and Mass Communication

Join the SCSS 076 and LEAD 199 classes as they host Taylor McKee from the Iowa Homeless Youth Center for an evening of service and simulation. Stop by the Pomerantz Stage anytime between 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. on April 19 to help make tie blankets for youth experiencing homelessness in Des Moines. Taylor will be putting on an educational simulation as well. If you feel so inclined, we will have a donation box for items the shelter needs. We will also be tabling the week of the event.

— Chloe Janich, Sophomore

The East Asian Film Series will feature two films in the coming weeks.

On April 17 at 6 p.m., “In This Corner of the World” (Japan, 2016) will play in Sussman Theater. A hand-drawn animated film, “In This Corner of the World” is set in the 1940s in Hiroshima, before and after the dropping of the atomic bomb. The film is co-sponsored by the East Asian Studies Minor and the Anime Club.

On May 2 at 4 p.m., “Spirit’s Homecoming” (South Korea, 2016) will air in Olin Hall, Room 101. The drama follows the lives of two teenage girls who were kidnapped by the Japanese Imperial Army to serve as sexual slaves at “comfort stations” in China. The film has graphic scenes, including those depicting sexual violence. The film is co-sponsored by the East Asian Studies Minor and Women and Gender Studies. A post-film discussion will be led by Professor Godfried Asante.

For questions about the upcoming films, contact Mary McCarthy at mary.mccarthy@drake.edu.

— Mary McCarthy, Department of Political Science