Fall Liberal Arts Faculty Colloquium Series to begin September 9

The University of Southern Indiana College of Liberal Arts will host its first Faculty Colloquia presentation of the Fall Semester at 11 a.m. Wednesday, September 9 in Kleymeyer Hall (LA0101), located in the lower level of the Liberal Arts Center. The event is open to the public at no charge.    

Dr. Andy Buck, Chair of Sociology, will present Power and Praise: The Case of the Soviet Union.  

The culture of praise in the Soviet Union was highly developed and ritualistic. This research explores the purpose of praise in Soviet society and maps out its different faces through a structural analysis of letters to the editor. Praise is conceptualized as a kind of symbolic capital that Soviet citizens use to signal their loyalty to one another. Soviet citizens expressed agreement through public praise of others published on the pages of widely-circulated newspapers. The analysis demonstrates variation in the structure of praise that depends on its direction, location, topics and the identities of givers and receivers. Buck identifies three stable types of praise–peer valorization, clientelistic and paternalistic praise. Soviet citizens used these faces of praise to exchange with others in different situations, but also helped reproduce Soviet authority by highlighting the achievements of others up and down the social ladder. 

Later presentations will be given by the following faculty:  

Presentations and subsequent series are made possible by Liberal Arts Research Awards (LARA) Funding awarded through the College of Liberal Arts to USI and Dr. Kristina Baker, Colloquium Director and Assistant Professor of Psychology.

For questions regarding the Colloquium Series, contact Baker at ktodorovic@usi.edu. Learn more about upcoming presentations on the website.