WORD/IMAGE/CULTURE CONFERENCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WEST GEORGIA

TALK, LISTEN, LOOK, LEARN

More than 100 U.S. and international scholars will converge on the University of West Georgia campus Nov. 11-13 to talk about language, literature, music and images and how they all connect.

The conference will feature two piano recitals and an exhibit by a Canadian artist Linda Carreiro, from the University of Calgary.

Dr. Carrie Noland, professor of French and Italian, at the University of California at Irvine, will be the keynote speaker. She will discuss contemporary interactive digital works during her speech on Friday, Nov. 12.

This is the 25^th year the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures sponsors the gathering. It is also the first time the conference will be held on the West Georgia campus, said Lynn Anderson, assistant professor of French. The Interdisciplinary Humanities Conference: Word/Image/Culture has been held in Atlanta and at the Carrollton Cultural Arts Center in previous years, said Anderson, who is coordinating the gathering.

“We’re excited. It will be more accessible to the faculty and staff,” Anderson said.

With some 125 people already registered, this is the largest version of the interdisciplinary humanities conference, Anderson said. Nearly three dozen are foreign scholars. Many of them are from Canada.

The scholars will discuss literature and related arts from the English, Spanish and French worlds. Also added to the mix: Russian, Turkish and Chinese literary arts. One panel will discuss gay and gender perspectives.

The gathering at the Campus Center is a chance for students to interact with top-notch scholars in their fields.

“There will be many different viewpoints – psychology and sociology, literature, art and music,” Anderson said. “This will provide food for thought as they pursue their own education.”

The conference panels, recitals, exhibit and keynote speech are free and open to all faculty, students, staff and the public.

“There are so many different approaches to artistic expressions, people should be able to find something that interests them,” Anderson said. “There really is a synergy when active and engaging minds get together that you don’t get when people are working separately.”

Many of the attendees are coming to hear Noland speak, Anderson said.

Noland is currently researching the role music, dance and song played in the development of black Caribbean literature at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City.

For the conference schedule go to: http://www.westga.edu/forlangconf/index_14104.php