RIT Brings International Scholars to Campus for Conable Lecture Series

‌

Cathy Kudlick

Former World Bank president and U.S. Rep. Barber Conable was one of the most respected members of the House of Representatives. It is because of his honesty and integrity that Rochester Institute of Technology created the Conable Distinguished Lecture Series in International Studies, which welcomes scholars to campus to shed light on topics affecting communities and citizens from around the globe.

The 2011–2012 lecture series begins with a talk by Cathy Kudlick, professor of history at University of California Davis, at 3 p.m. Oct. 17 in Xerox Auditorium, Kate Gleason College of Engineering. Kudlick will present “Disability, Survival and the Hidden Lives of Epidemics.”

In addition to her teaching duties, Kudlick is president of the Disability History Association and is an expert in the areas of French social and cultural history, disability history, gender and sexuality, and the history of medicine and public health.

Other series speakers include:

• Fuyuki Kurasawa, associate professor of sociology, York University, presenting “Show and Tell: On the Rhetorical Grammars and Visual Motifs of Contemporary Anti-Slavery Advocacy,” 2 p.m. Nov. 7, Golisano Hall auditorium
• Walter Hawthorne, professor and chair of history, Michigan State University, presenting “Black Rice Reconsidered: The Cultural Meaning of Work in African Communities on Both Sides of the Atlantic in the Eighteenth Century,” 4 p.m. Dec. 5, Golisano Hall auditorium
• Adam Mohr, postdoctoral fellow of anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, presenting “Enchanted Christianity: Faith Tabernacle Congregation in Colonial West Africa, 1918-1930,” noon Feb. 9, Golisano Hall auditorium
• Robert Foster, professor and chair of anthropology, University of Rochester, presenting “The Hidden Life of Things: The Untold Story of the P.G. Black Collection of Pacific Island Artifacts at the Buffalo Museum of Science,” 2 p.m. March 28, Golisano Hall auditorium
• Marcus Filippello, assistant professor of history, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, presenting “ ‘Black Earth’: Roads, Environmental Change and Identity in a West African Forest Community,” noon April 12, Golisano Hall auditorium
• Joyce McDonough, associate professor and chair of linguistics and brain and cognitive sciences, University of Rochester, presenting “Saving Languages: Linguistic Diversity, Cultural Identity and the Role of the Small,” 2 p.m. May 2, Golisano Hall auditorium

All talks are free and open to the community.

The Conable Distinguished Lecture Series is presented by RIT’s Office of the Provost, international studies program, and the College of Liberal Arts. The Barber B. Conable Jr. Endowed Chair in International Studies was made possible by a starting gift from the Starr Foundation.

For more information about the lecture series, contact Benjamin Lawrance, Conable Chair in International Studies, at bnlgla@rit.edu.