Temple Grandin waves in the press room after "Temple Grandin" won for outstanding made for television movie during the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards Sunday, August 29, 2010, in Los Angeles.

AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

Every year, the University of Michigan's School of Art & Design brings interesting speakers to town for free lectures via the Penny W. Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series.

Speakers appear at 5:10 p.m. on select Thursdays at the Michigan Theater, 603 East Liberty Street, and admission is free.

Leading off this fall's series is Temple Grandin, the agricultural scientist and author with autism who was recently the subject of an acclaimed HBO documentary.

The full schedule of this fall's series:

9/9 - Temple Grandin "Thinking in Pictures" Named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people, Temple Grandin is a bestselling author and designer functioning with autism. Currently a Doctor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, she has designed livestock facilities all over the world, including facilities to handle half of the US cattle industry. She speaks around the world on both autism and cattle handling. Dr. Grandin’s presentation includes how visual thinking has been key to understanding both design and animal behavior; and why the best designers are experienced at hand drawing and making things with their hands.

With support from the UM Autism & Communication Disorders Center

9/16 - The Csikszentmihalyis "What the Bible Teaches Us About Robotics" Mihaly Csikszentmihályi is a leading researcher and author on creativity, renowned as the architect of the idea of “flow” in creative work. Martin Seligman, former president of the American Psychological Association, described Csikszentmihalyi as the world's leading researcher on positive psychology.

Christopher Csikszentmihályi directs the MIT Media Lab's Computing Culture group, which works to create unique media technologies for cultural applications. He also directs the MIT Center for Future Civic Media, which develops new technologies and techniques to strengthen geographic communities.

A featured event of the “Play makes life worth living” theme semester collaboration with support from Arts Engine, University Musical Society (UMS), and the LSA Theme Semester.

9/23 - Kartoon Kings "Conflict Theory" Since 1990, British artist Simon Grennan and American Christopher Sperandio have collaborated on a variety of interactive, public artworks, often in the form of comic books. They collaborate for media internationally, including WIRED magazine, London's Channel Four and DC Comics, and for such museums as the MoMA/PS1, London's Institute of Contemporary Art, and the National Gallery of Wales. Awarded the 2010 Witt Artists-in-Residence at the School of Art and Design, they will spend the fall semester engaging the UM community in their gaming project, Conflict Theory, creating simulated battles across a scale model of Ann Arbor.

A featured event of the “Play makes life worth living” theme semester collaboration with support from the University Musical Society (UMS).

9/30 - Joumana Haddad "Taboos" Author of Lilith’s Return and founder of controversial Jasad (Body)magazine, renowned Lebanese poet and journalist Joumana Haddad discusses who is the “Arab Woman” today? What are her characteristics, strengths and flaws? What are the clichés still linked to her in the West? What taboos are still keeping her from expressing her body and mind? And most importantly: what is behind the lure of those clichés? What lies beyond the myths, prejudices, over-simplifications and stereotypes, beyond the still persisting Orientalist perspective and the so-called “clash” between the East and the West.

With support from the Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG) and the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies (CMENAS).

10/7 - Marije Vogelzang "My Designs Inside Your Body" Designers who work with food are often called “food designers.” According to Marije Vogelzang, food is already perfectly designed by nature. She designs from the verb “to eat.” She is inspired by the origin of food, the preparation, etiquette, history and the culture around it. Rather than calling herself “food designer” she sees herself as an “eating-designer”. Vogelzang shows the exploration and potential of a new approach to the act of eating (or is it a new approach to design?). She has a wide-ranging practice, from designing restaurant concepts, medical and educational projects to art installations and creating new food rituals.

With support from the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses.

10/21 - Matthew Ritchie "Chance and Skill" Although often described as a painter, Matthew Ritchie creates works on paper, prints, light-box drawings, floor-to-wall installations, freestanding sculpture, web sites, and short stories that tie his sprawling works together into a personal mythology drawn from creation myths, particle physics, thermodynamics, and games of chance, among other elements. Ritchie’s Stamps presentation includes performances by Aaron & Bryce Dessner, of the band “The National,” and Shara Worden, of the band “My Brightest Diamond.”

With support from UM Museum of Art (UMMA) and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD).

10/28 - Sarah Chayes "The Campaign for Kandahar" Journalist, author, former Peace Corps Volunteer and special advisor to the military in Afghanistan, Sarah Chayes offers an inside look at the former Taliban stronghold after the biggest operation by international troops in the 9-year Afghan war. Chayes began her reporting career free-lancing for The Christian Science Monitor and other outlets. From 1996 to 2002, she served as Paris reporter for National Public Radio, earning 1999 Foreign Press Club and Sigma Delta Chi awards for her reporting on the Kosovo War. Sarah left reporting in 2002 to remain in the field in Afghanistan and focus on civil and economic development. She is the author of The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban (2006) and Comprehensive Action Plan for Afghanistan written in January, 2009. A featured event of the UM Peace Corps 50th Anniversary with support from the LSA Theme Semester “What makes life worth living?”, the International Center, the Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia (WCEE), the International Institute, and the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies (CMENAS).

11/4 - John Cage Trust "Indeterminacy" with Director Laura Kuhn Writer, director, performer, and John Cage collaborator, Laura Kuhn is Director and cofounder of the John Cage Trust, and the John Cage Professor of Performance Art at Bard College. She will perform John Cage's "Indeterminacy," a work involving tightly timed readings of one-minute anecdotes (each, regardless of length, read precisely over one minute), accompanied by an "improvised" electronic score involving certain of Cage's works manipulated by a DJ/turntablist simultaneously with the readings, sometimes punctuating, sometimes obscuring. This performance will feature DJ Tadd Mullinix.

A featured event of ONCE. MORE. - a 50th Anniversary Celebration of the ONCE Festival presented in collaboration with the Institute for the Humanities, the University Musical Society (UMS), the School of Music Theater & Dance, and the Center for Performing Arts Technology

11/11 - Inigo Manglano Ovalle "Gravity" Through the use of film, sculpture, photography and installation Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle investigates subjects such as technology, climate change, immigration and the global impact of social, political, environmental, and scientific systems. His work has involved him in washing and breaking the windows of Mies Van Der Rohe buildings, building radio-telescopes to search for extra terrestrials on the US/Mexican border, creating cryogenic sperm banks for archiving specimens on loan from artists and curators, monitoring heroin poppies with military night vision, as well as capturing actual clouds and icebergs.

With support from UM Museum of Art (UMMA) and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD).

11/18 - Wangechi Mutu "My Dirty Little Heaven" Kenyan born and New York-based collagist and painter Wangechi Mutu creates work that critiques gender, culture and mass media imagery. Exploring the female body as a site of engagement and provocation, Mutu's work is frequently populated by hybrid figures that possess an almost abject beauty. The artist samples imagery from disparate sources - medical diagrams, fashion magazines, anthropology and botany texts, pornography, and traditional African arts. The artist's signature aesthetic utilizes tactile and fleshy surfaces to readily engage in her own unique form of myth making.

With support from the Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG), UM Museum of Art (UMMA) and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD).

12/2 - Luis Chomiak "Influencing Train Design" Luis Chomiak is an International Transportation Design Consultant and Industrial Design Engineer with experience in all types of product design, rail vehicles and other forms of public and personal transportation. Recent projects include the China Zefiro VHS (Very High Speed) Train and Metro Singapore. His Stamps presentation discusses the complex issues that influence modern rail vehicle design, including service requirements, environmental conditions, infrastructures, interoperability, norms and standards, safety, human factors, special needs, green issues, cultural requirements, operator and passenger aspirations, manufacturing technology and cost.

With support from UM SMART - Sustainable Mobility and Accessibility Research and Transformation.

12/9 - Natasha Tsakos "Up Wake" Playwright and performer Natasha Tsakos creates theater where sound, computer-generated images and the performer address questions of the human soul. She has performed with Circ X and the Big Apple Circus, and writes, teaches and performs her own work worldwide. She is also the author of several plays, collections of poetry and the cartoon “The Eskimans.” Tsakos’ Stamps presentation features her Live 3D animated show UP WAKE, and the use of new technologies within performance to raise awareness and inspire the generation of today and tomorrow to think differently about Art, Science, and Humanity.

A featured event of the “Play makes life worth living” theme semester collaboration with support from the University Musical Society (UMS), the Center for Performing Arts Technology and the Department of Theatre & Drama.