UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Center for Global Studies will continue to host the Brown Bag Lecture Series this spring on select Wednesdays from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. in 157 Burrowes Building on the University Park campus of Penn State.
The lectures highlight faculty and graduate interdisciplinary research of global studies. All are welcome to attend and enjoy complimentary cookies and coffee.
The first lecture titled, “Rural Youth at the Crossroad: Contemporary Challenges Within Transition Societies in Central Europe,” will take place on Feb. 6 and will be given by Kai Schafft, associate professor of education and rural sociology, and Renata Horvatek, international internships adviser at Penn State Global Programs. This talk will discuss an ongoing collaboration to address questions about the response of rural youth in Central Europe and other transitional regions to recent socioeconomic, demographic, and political shifts; their attitudes toward their rural roots and future aspirations; the social and political exclusions and inclusions in their regions; and more.
On Feb. 20, Victoria Lupascu will present a lecture titled, “Postsocialist Locales and Global Dreams: The Minimalist Approach in Romanian and Chinese Cinema.” Lupascu's talk with analyze the transnational imaginaries of migrant workers and students as represented in Constantin Popescu’s "The Laughing Yellow Face" and Li Hong’s "Out of Phoenix Bridge" and will position the cultural creation of such figures in the context described by postsocialism in Romania and China. Lupascu is a dual doctoral student in comparative literature and Asian studies.
Elizabeth Tuttle, a doctoral candidate in French and Francophone studies, will present a lecture titled, “‘Behind the Decorations at Vincennes:’ Indochinese Activists against the 1931 French Colonial Exposition” on March 20. Tuttle will argue how the colonial exposition became an ideological battleground between colonial administrators and a small number of activists determined to change public opinion by exposing the violence at the heart of French colonialism.
For more information, contact Sarah Lyall-Combs at 814-867-4697 or email at cgsinfo@psu.edu.