Jim Leach spent 30 years representing Iowa in the U.S. House of Representatives. On Tuesday, Oct. 15, at 10:30 a.m., he will speak at the University of Iowa College of Education on “STEM, the Humanities, and Global Education.”
Leach’s talk will take place in Jones Commons, Room 300 Lindquist Center North. It will be followed by a reception and is free and open to the public. The event is the first in a new Distinguished Speakers Series presented in the college and hosted by Nicholas Colangelo, dean of the UI College of Education.
Colangelo says Leach’s unique professional experiences allow him to synthesize areas such as math, science, arts, and global issues in “provocative and insightful ways.”
“He is the embodiment of the renaissance man. The College of Education is proud to have Jim Leach as our first distinguished speaker,” Colangelo says.
Leach’s tenure in Congress as a Republican representing Iowa’s 2nd congressional district lasted from 1977 to 2007. He founded and served as co-chair of the Congressional Humanities Caucus and was a senior member of the House Committee on International Relations.
After his congressional career, he was chairman of the National Endowment for Humanities. In a March 2013 interview with Arizona Public Radio, Leach describes the importance of emphasizing both humanities and STEM, an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, in American education.
“I think one of the myths of our time is that we ought to be single minded in what it is we educate people to do,” he says. “I am a huge advocate of all of the STEM disciplines. And the humanities without science would be a stagnant society.”
Leach is currently serving as the UI Chair in Public Affairs and a visiting professor and senior scholar in the UI College of Law.
Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all UI-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to attend this event, contact Cristina Cardenas in advance at cristina-cardenas@uiowa.edu or 319-335-6111.
To read a related story on Leach, visit here.