Oct. 4, 2006
Clark University announces upcoming Higgins School of Humanities Lectures
Worcester, Mass. - The following lectures are sponsored by Clark University's Higgins School of Humanities. They are free and open to the public.
Lecture
"Gus and little sister: the tropes of white feminine innocence and black masculine criminality in American film"
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
7:30 p.m.
Grace Conference Room, Higgins University Center, 950 Main Street
Over the last 20 years, the representation of African Americans in the mainstream media has become increasingly diverse. Current sitcoms, variety programs and feature films demonstrate that black actors are no longer limited to racial caricatures. Yet contemporary social problem pictures still rely on conventional tropes and motifs that resurrect a Manichean world view of race and gender. In this lecture, Mia Mask, assistant professor of film at Vassar College, examines the tropes of white femininity as they exist in opposition to the tropes of black masculinity in films such as "True Romance," "kids," "Black and White," "Requiem for a Dream" and others. This lecture is sponsored by Clark's Higgins School of Humanities. It is offered as part of the African American Intellectual Culture Series. For more information, call 508-793-7479.
Lecture
"The Persistence of Nativism: The 'Chinese Question' Revisited"
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
7:30 p.m.
Grace Conference Room, Higgins University Center, 950 Main Street
Betsy Huang, assistant professor of English, received a Higgins grant in the spring of 2005 to research Asian-American participation in national debates on immigration. She will revisit "The Chinese Question," a hotly debated issue in the late 1800s on whether Chinese laborers should be expelled from the U.S. The debate lays bare the burden borne by immigrants who must prove their worth as potential citizens, the xenophobic sentiments that underpin anti-immigration policies, and the troubling fact that the rhetoric of nativism has undergone little change over the course of the twentieth century. This lecture is sponsored by Clark's Higgins School of Humanities. It is part of the Higgins Faculty Series. For more information, call 508-793-7479.