Professor Ken Kersch of Boston College will present “The Development of Constitutional Conservatism” on March 29 at 3 p.m. at Cartwright Hall, Room 213. The lecture, which is part of the Drake Constitutional Law Center’s Distinguished Lecture Series, is free and open to everyone.

Kersch is a professor of political science and was the founding director of Boston College’s Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy. He is currently a distinguished research fellow at the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy at the University of Missouri for the 2017-2018 academic year.

Kersch’s chief interests are in American political and constitutional development, American legal history, and American political thought. He is the recipient of the American Political Science Association’s (APSA) Edward S. Corwin Award, the J. David Greenstone Prize from APSA’s politics and history section, and the Hughes-Gossett Award from the Supreme Court Historical Society. He has authored numerous articles and books, including The Supreme Court and American Political Development and Constructing Civil Liberties: Discontinuities in the Development of American Constitutional Law. He is also completing a series of books on conservative constitutional thought in the postwar U.S. and a book on American political thought.

For more information, see the news release.

— Kayla Choate, Law School

The Central Iowa Chapter of the Risk Management Association is holding a free lunch and learn event on Friday, April 5, for those interested in a career in the financial industry.

Robert Messer, senior executive vice president and chief financial officer for American National Bank of Texas and chair of the Risk Management Association, is the featured speaker. He will discuss major shifts in our society and five essential skills for any organization or person that strives to prosper in the future.

The lunch and learn will take place in the Parents Hall South of the Olmsted Center at 11:30 a.m. Doors open at 11:15 a.m. The event is free to all students. Register by April 3. Space is limited to the first 50 registrants. Your registration includes both the presentation and lunch.

— Dianna Gray, College of Business & Public Administration

Casey Plett, an accomplished writer who has won the LAMDA Literary Award for Best Transgender Fiction, will provide a reading followed by a short discussion on Thursday, March 29, at 7 p.m. in the Cowles Library Reading Room. Plett writes and speaks to issues that are important to all communities, in particular, the LGBTQ community. Attendees will have a chance to hear good prose and learn about the literary conversation surrounding literature by and about people who identify as transgender. The event is sponsored by the Susan Glaspell Writers and Critics Series. For more information, contact Yasmina Madden at yasmina.madden@drake.edu.

— Yasmina Madden, English Department

Alpha Phi Omega, Alpha Kappa Psi, and Kappa Alpha Theta will host an ethnic food drive March 26 through April 6. Tabling will take place in the Olmsted Breezeway from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The ethnic food drive aims to raise funds and collect food for the ethnically diverse population in Des Moines. The drive will benefit the Des Moines Area Religious Council’s 13 food pantries and the people they serve throughout the Des Moines community.

In addition to the ethnic food drive, the initiative involves educational programming for the Drake community. A panel of local representatives in the Des Moines area will discuss food insecurity on March 29 at 7 p.m. in CR 310.

— Brittany Freeman

Delta Sigma Pi will host its seventh semi-annual Leadership Lecture Series today, March 26, from 7 to 8 p.m. in Sussman Theater. Sue Mattison, provost at Drake, is the featured speaker and will discuss her career path, what a provost does, and give some career advice.

— Jenny Goodale

Drake University’s Center for Professional Studies will host a pair of one-day seminars that teach business professionals to understand and interpret financial statements. Each seminar provides attendees with the knowledge and skills they need to make good business decisions using the information contained within financial statements. Both seminars are held from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.: the Friday, April 20 session focuses on financial statements for banks, and the Thursday, May 10 session focuses on financial statements of insurance companies. Gary Porter, distinguished lecturer in Drake’s College of Business and Public Administration, will lead both seminars. Porter has led numerous training programs for bankers in Chicago; he teaches a graduate-level course at Drake on the financial services industry and previously worked as a staff accountant for Deloitte & Touche. The cost of $229 (per seminar) includes all necessary materials and a catered lunch. More information and registration is online.

— Lisa Boes, Center for Professional Studies

This free event will focus on women inspiring and encouraging one another in reaching STEM goals. The Women in STEM Social is scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. in Levitt Hall. The night features guest speakers and a dessert reception. Optional tours of Drake’s new STEM facilities—Collier-Scripps Hall and the Science Connector Building—will be offered prior to the event. Attire is smart casual. The social is hosted by the Drake University Chemistry Club and Drake’s Women in Math and Computer Science organization. Register by March 30.

— Margaret Clapham

Rebecca Moore, emerita professor of religious studies at San Diego State University, will discuss “The Truth About Jonestown, and Other Fictions” as part of the Hawley Foundation Lecture Series on April 5 at 7 p.m. in Sussman Theater.

The mass murder-suicides that occurred in Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978, have generated multiple reports, explanations, and theories about what led members of Peoples Temple to their tragic demise. From alternative histories to sensationalistic documentaries, depictions of the forty-year old tragedy continue to fascinate the American public. Moore examines these competing narratives in order to understand the ways in which stories about Jonestown say more about us than about those who died. This is especially clear when we consider voices that have been erased from popular media accounts: those of women, African Americans, and citizens of Guyana. Learning about the past and the various interpretations of Peoples Temple and Jonestown illuminates the ways in which we engage with new religious movements in the present.

Moore has a specialization in American religions with a focus on new religious movements. She co-edited Peoples Temple and Black Religion in America (Indiana 2004) and authored Understanding Jonestown and Peoples Temple (Praeger 2009; paperback forthcoming 2018). She co-manages the website Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple. Her most recent book is Beyond Brainwashing: Perspectives on Cultic Violence (Cambridge University Press, 2018).

—Charlene Skidmore, Honors Program

Attend Dogtown After Hours in the Olmsted Center on Friday, March 30, from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. Dogtown After Hours is a large-scale, collaborative, student-led event that aims to bring campus together in an alcohol-free environment. There will be free food and games, prize giveaways, student performances, and more. Everything at the event is entirely free. Last year there were over 1,000 attendees.

— Lindsay Fiegle

The Comparison Project is hosting its next lecture on miracles Thursday, March 29, at 7 p.m. in Sussman Theater, Olmsted Center. The lecture, “Fear, Loathing, and Miracles among the Cowherders: Krishna’s Childhood Prodigies,” will be presented by Richard H. Davis, professor of religion and Asian studies at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY. Formerly he taught as assistant and associate professor at Yale University.

Read more about the lecture.

— Monique Rodriguez, College of Arts and Sciences