K-State Cultural Studies Conference to entertain, enlighten

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Source: Philip Nel, 785-532-2165, philnel@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Michelle Hall, 785-532-6415, mhall@k-state.edu

Thursday, February 15, 2007

K-STATE CULTURAL STUDIES CONFERENCE TO ENTERTAIN, ENLIGHTEN

MANHATTAN -- Prepare to be entertained at Kansas State University's 16th annual Cultural Studies Conference.

The conference, March 8-10 at K-State, will focus around the theme of "Entertainment!" About 60 presentations will examine a wide array of entertainment issues, such as technology, print culture, theater, youth and adolescent cultures, the representation of war, and the exploration of exoticism, said Phillip Marzluf, K-State assistant professor of English. The conference explores what is it exactly that happens when people say they are "entertained."

"From P.T. Barnum to the iPod, from theories of entertainment to entertainment for theorists, the conference offers a range of panels that demonstrate the myriad connections and relationships between how culture works and how it plays," said D.K. Smith, K-State assistant professor of English.

The conference's keynote speaker will be Judith Halberstam, professor of English and director of the Center for Feminist Research at the University of Southern California. Halberstam is a gender theorist, specializing in cultural studies, queer theory and visual culture. She will speak at 8 p.m. Thursday, March 8, in the Banquet Room at the K-State Alumni Center.

"Judith Halberstam is currently the nation's foremost scholar who combines the study of sexual identity with the cultural study of entertainment, popular culture and contemporary sub-cultures," said Gregory Eiselein, professor and director of graduate studies in K-State's department of English.

Halberstam is the author of "The Transgender Moment: Gender Flexibility and the Postmodern Condition," "The Drag King Book," "Female Masculinity," "Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters" and "Posthuman Bodies." Her talk is free and open to the public.

The conference will also include a performance by El Vez, "The Mexican Elvis."

At 3:30 p.m. Saturday, March 10, Francesca Royster, author of "Becoming Cleopatra: The Shifting Image of an Icon," will address the subject of "What We Talk About When We Talk About Lil' Kim: Sexuality, Respectability and Black Feminist Futures." The talk will be in the Room 207 at the Union and is free and open to the public.

The conference, at the Union, is free for K-State undergraduates; registration is $30 for K-State faculty, staff, graduate students and alumni. For those not affiliated with the university, the registration is $60. Registration will be available on the second floor of the Union and will be available from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 8 and 9, and from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 10. More information on the conference, including a schedule of presentations, is available online at http://www.k-state.edu/english/symposium/

"We all enjoy entertainment, but too rarely do we think about it," said Philip Nel, associate professor of English at K-State and director of the program in children's literature. "This year's Cultural Studies Conference offers an opportunity to take seriously what we do for fun."