The University of Iowa

Lecture

KJ Sanchez

KJ Sanchez and her company, American Records, create documentary plays about key issues, seeking to build connections between people. Her lecture will focus on her work concerning the concussion crisis in American football and issues of immigrants and resettlement in the United States.

G. Willow Wilson

In fiction, nonfiction, and comics, G. Willow Wilson has distinguished herself as a writer of remarkable originality and insight. In her lecture, Wilson uses the challenges Ms. Marvel—a Pakistani-American Muslim teenager—faces as a parallel for the challenges of a misunderstood generation.

Leslie Odom Jr.

Leslie Odom Jr. had his Broadway debut in 1998 at age 17 in Rent. But his Tony Award-winning portrayal of Aaron Burr— “the damn fool who shot him”—in Hamilton shot him to fame as he and his castmates shined a new light on America’s founding figures.

David J. Skorton

Currently the 13th Secretary of the Smithsonian, Doctor David J. Skorton served as the 19th president of the University of Iowa from 2003–2006 and was a member of the UI faculty for 26 years before becoming the 12th president of Cornell University.