Monday, March 30, 2009
Distinguished Scholar offers two public lectures
 Dr. Roy F. Fox, professor of English Education at the University of Missouri-Columbia, is the College of Liberal Arts 2009 Distinguished Scholar and will present two lectures on Friday, April 3. In his first lecture, he’ll discuss how to be a critical media consumer. In the second, he’ll talk about how to heal grief through words. The Department of Communications is sponsoring this year’s Distinguished Scholar Lectures, which are open to the University community and the general public. Fox’s research interests are media and children, culture in the classroom, and literacy and writing. He is the author of MediaSpeak: Three American Voices (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001) and Harvesting Minds: How TV Commercials Control Kids (Praeger Press, 2000). He is director of the Missouri Writing Project, part of the National Writing Project, a network of sites throughout the country dedicated to the improvement of the teaching and learning of writing. The Missouri Writing Project was one of the first such sites in the nation. Dr. Gael Cooper, professor of public relations, said, “Dr. Fox’s research and publications have focused on a number of significant areas within the liberal arts, including writing, thinking, and creativity. Fox’s work, embracing numerous disciplines, demonstrates the interconnected nature of the liberal arts. Of particular interest to the Communications Department is his work on popular culture, advertising, and media effects. This includes the area known as ‘cultivation,’ that is, the latent impact that images seen on television may have on impressionable viewers.” Fox will present “Mucking around in Media: Confessions of a Critical Consumer,” at 2 p.m. in Kleymeyer Hall (LA 0101) in the lower level of the Liberal Arts Center. For many years, he has engaged in language and media – in learning, teaching, writing, reading, listening, and viewing-as a creator, as well as a critical consumer. In this illustrated presentation, he will explore several ways of thinking about media and popular culture, approaches that include “talking and writing back” to public discourse and commercial messages. That evening, he will present “Give Sorrow Words: Restoring the Self through Language and Image,” at 7:30 p.m. in Mitchell Auditorium in the Health Professions Center. In this presentation, Fox will define, describe, and explore the uses of informal language and imagery as a way of “healing” from many types of traumatic experiences, such as AIDS, physical abuse, substance abuse, depression, isolation, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Before taking questions from the audience, he will discuss his work in this field, including his current research, which focuses on how language experts, themselves, use writing as a way of healing. For more information, contact Cooper at 812/465-7136 or gcooper@usi.edu. Wendy Knipe Bredhold News & Information Services 812/461-5259 or wkbredhold@usi.edu |
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