College of Social and Behavioral Sciences

The UNI Textiles and Apparel Program (TAPP) will host the 20th anniversary Textile and Apparel Design Show displaying student talent. This special anniversary show will not only showcase the work of students currently enrolled in the program, but also feature apparel produced by TAPP alumni working across the country and abroad for well-known fashion labels and industry leaders. Alumni have been invited to this anniversary event. They will be honored on stage and at the reception that follows in the Sabin Hall Ground Floor Atrium. The event is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required; doors open at 6:30 p.m.

All students who were enrolled in classes this academic year in the Textiles and Apparel Program were encouraged to design and construct original garments for the 2012 show “Catwalk to the Big Top”. Designs were chosen for the runway show that demonstrated creativity, appropriate and well executed construction techniques, trend sensitivity, and strong visual messages.  

The CSBS Student Research Conference features scholarly projects from diverse departments at UNI as well as other regional schools and universities. The conference provides undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to exchange ideas, present research and learn more about developments in social sciences.

Students can attend seminars, lectures and panel discussions. Topics include future possibilities and job prospects after graduating in the social sciences, current research focus in the fields and graduate education in the social sciences.

This year's keynote speaker is Dr. Caroline J. Tolbert, whose research explores political behavior, elections and representation widely defined (her subfields include voting, elections and representation, public opinion, American state politics, direct democracy, race/ethnicity, digital politics and information technology). 

Miriam Jordan is a senior special writer for The Wall Street Journal.  She writes about immigrants nationally from a grass-roots perspective. Jordan has received several awards for her coverage of immigrants and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2007 and 2009.

Craig Klafter, Assistant Provost, International Programs, will present  "Classical Education and the Founding of the United States:  The Case of Peter van Schaack." The event is free and open to the public.

Kristen McNutt, recipient of the Outstanding Graduate Research Paper on gender, will present “We're Taking Slut Back: SlutWalks, the Rape Script and the Linguistic Reclamation of Slut.” McNutt is a graduate student in Women's and Gender Studies. The WGS program sponsors the Current Research on Women forum series. Faculty, staff, students and the community are invited for informal presentation and discussion.

Dr. Kristin Hoganson, professor of history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will present, “Buying into Empire: U.S. Consumption at the Turn of the Twentieth Century." The lecture will explore this year Women's History Month theme "Women and Global Capitalism."

Major Neill Franklin, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, will discuss the war on drugs. A reaction panel of university and community experts will follow the lecture. The War on Drugs was initiated in the 1970s in response to a perceived national problem of increased drug usage, particularly among the young.  Since then, drug enforcement efforts have cost billions of dollars in federal, state and local funds. In addition, the rapid increase in the number of individuals convicted for drug offenses and the length of their incarceration is primarily responsible for the fact that the United States has one of the highest per capita incarceration rates of all the nations of the world. This event is free and open to the public. Sponsors are the UNI Public Policy Program, UNI Public Policy Club, Northern Iowa Student Government and the Citizens for Undoing Racism Task Force on the War on Drugs.

This panel will address the myriad of immigrant women's experiences in Iowa's workforce, including a variety of topics such as obstacles and successes in gaining employment, negotiating legal status, job specifics, family life and everyday workforce interactions. Audiences will learn from and contribute to the panelists' collective knowledge via conversation and discussion.

The vision of Celebrating Colors: Women - Past, Present and Future is to highlight women’s accomplishments. The celebration will showcase women who have gone before us, to honor women who are setting and accomplishing goals in the present and to encourage young women for the future. There are three phases to the evening. Past: selected students will present on women of the past, their challenges and achievements. Present: selected women from the campus and the community will be honored for their accomplishments, discuss their struggles and offer advice for the future. Future: selected student groups will give their vision and/or mission statements, talk about some of their struggles and/or challenges on campus and in the community, and preview upcoming events.

Maid in America is a documentary about three Latin American immigrant women in Los Angeles, Calif. who left their families behind in order to earn a living caring for other people’s children, as well as cleaning other people’s homes.