What's New

Dr. Lisa Merrill, professor of Speech Communication, Rhetoric, and Performance Studies, will present a talk on “Seeing and Being Seen: Fugitive Slaves at London’s 1851 Great Exhibition,” on Friday, May 11th at 3:30 pm, 8th floor Faculty Dining Room, at Hunter College.

Her presentation is part of “Emancipating History: The Politics of Memory & The Cultural Geography of Slavery in New York,” a colloquium on the meaning of the upcoming 150-year anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Students from Hunter’s English and Geography departments will join with international artists and scholars to present original works of art which reflect on the politics of memory and the relationship of slavery and emancipation to the cultural and physical geography of New York.

Sex/Body/Self
A Performance, Lecture & Rant by Tim Miller
Thursday, April 26, 2012 at 8 pm in Breslin 205

Internationally acclaimed solo performer Tim Miller will perform excerpts from his work and speak about the role performance plays in constellating identity.  Known for his charged performance work, which takes up the most challenging social texts of our time, Miller will share fierce and funny material as well as speak about how performance can be used to embolden communities and connect people with one another.

Queer Rhetoric: The 6th Annual LGBT Studies Conference
Friday and Saturday, March 16-17, 2012

Queer Rhetoric is a relatively new field situated at the intersection of LGBT Studies, Queer Theory, Rhetoric and Cultural Studies. In short, Queer Rhetoric seeks to uncover the symbolic and performative strategies whereby queer identities have been and continue to be constructed in different times and places.

Find out more on the Hofstra Cultural Center's site or view the conference program [PDF].

Diana Carlin

Brooks Jackson

Coinciding with various Debate 2012 educational events, SPCM has planned a number of fall events! Dates are tentative and arrangements for our speakers are still being made.

• Dr. Diana Carlin, Saint Louis University Professor of Political Communication, presidential debate expert, and member of the Commission on Presidential Debates will be on campus October 15 & 16. She will deliver a public lecture on presidential debates and host a debate watch event the night of Hofstra's presidential debate.

• On Sept. 27 we will host a public Spot Watch event featuring Hofstra faculty and New York political strategists. The focus of the event will be on advertising strategy.

• On Oct. 2 we will host a public Spot Watch event featuring Hofstra faculty and Dr. Charlton McIlwain, co-author of Race Appeal and The Routledge Companion to Race and Ethnicity. The focus of the event will be on race, ethnicity and gender.

• On Oct. 11 we will host a public Spot Watch event featuring Hofstra faculty and FactCheck.Org Director Brooks Jackson. Mr. Jackson is also the author of UnSpun: Find Facts in a World of Disinformation.

Special Topics Course for Fall 2012

Do you want to make History?

All students enrolled in SPCM 181 C – DEMOCRACY IN PERFORMANCE will have the opportunity to perform historical characters before the public at the Democracy in Performance event to be staged before the Presidential Debate on Hofstra University’s campus October 15th. Last time we staged such an event, it was widely covered by journalists all over the world.

Students registering for the one-credit option will: research their historical character, construct the text for their character, be available to rehearse, and perform their character at the Democracy in Performance event to be held on October 15, 2012.

Students registering for the two-credit option will: do all of the above, plus research ways the historical personages and events being staged were covered in the press in their historical era, and how they relate to issues such as labor rights, immigration, and voting rights that are being discussed in the current Presidential election. They will present this research in a public speech.

Students registering for the three-credit option will: continue to meet throughout the semester, do all of the above, plus get to investigate the connections between historical events we’ve staged and reportage of the current
Presidential debates and ways the candidates’ public performances shape the 2012 Presidential election.

Three-credit students will be required to write a research paper applying their performance work to the current debates.

FOR MORE INFORMATION – Please see – Dr. Lisa Merrill (407 New Academic Building), or email her at lisa.merrill@hofstra.edu