UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — An expert in media uses and responses across the life-span will present the fall 2024 Robert M. Pockrass Memorial Lecture at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 18 in 121 Sparks Building.

Marie-Louise Mares, a professor of communication science at the University of Wisconsin, researches and teaches about the prosocial and positive outcomes of media use, including education, health and identity development.

Mares will present a free lecture on the topic of “Family Media Moments: How Parents and Children Navigate Identity.” The presentation will focus on families navigating shared and unshared identities, with particular attention to her recent work on families with LGBTQ teens. She will talk about the ways in which shared media moments allow teens and parents to diagnose each other’s feelings, open difficult conversations and express love, support or opposition.   

Mares, an award-winning researcher, teaches courses on quantitative research methods in communication arts, communication and interethnic behavior, mass media and youth, and mass media and human behavior.

This annual Pockrass Memorial Lecture is named after the late Professor Robert M. Pockrass, a member of Penn State’s journalism faculty from 1948 to 1977. Pockrass, who specialized in public opinion and popular culture, served as the graduate officer and taught radio news writing for the School of Journalism, which later became the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications.