Faculty members at MCLA have for many years been engaged in research and special projects.  To allow campus and community members the opportuity to learn about their interests and research, the faculty instituted a "Brown Bag Lecture Series" where faculty present and discuss their scholarly activities.

The Brown Bag Lecture Series for 2007-2008 are below.  All lectures take place on a Friday at 3pm.  Location TBD

September 28, 2007:  Graziana Ramsden will present "Notes on Amores Perros and New Punk Cinema."  Amores Perros, perhaps the best-known Mexican film to date worldwide and the recipient of many national and international awards, tells three separate yet interwoven stories of love and violence, cutting through the boundaries of the class structure and urban topography of Mexico City.  The three protagonists and their personal stories literally come to crash together in a car accident that profoundly marks them all.  The subject-matter of the film, tinged as it is with the brutality of dogfighting and of urban violent crimes, and the documentary-style camerawork, often hand-held and following characters in and out of situations, allows for a reading of this film within the framework of new punk cinema.  In this paper, I present a reading of Amores Perros within the context of new punk cinema, focusing specifically on the punk aesthetics and production values as well as on the neo-realist influence to unveil the rough social commentary underneath it all.

October 12, 2007:  Maynard Seider will present "American Dream" or "Business as Usual"?:  The Role of Higher Education in the U.S. Class System.   Since the 1976 publication of Sam Bowles and Herb Gintis' "Schooling in Capitalist America," social scientists have responded to their argument that educational institutions further "social reproduction" rather than social mobility.  Research, as it relates to higher education, as well as research conducted at MCLA, Amherst and Williams College will be presented.

November 16, 2007: David Johnson and Matt Silliman will present "Socratic Blogalogues and other Tools for Teaching Writing"  This presentation addresses the use of various literary forms for teaching writing and editing intensive courses, including blogs, journals, dialog, narrative, critical essays, and focused redrafts.  The presenters will share samples of recent student writing and provide guidelines in handout form for those interested in incorporating similar techniques in their classes.

February 28, 2008: Joe Ebiware will present "Interpersonal Communication:  Talking About What?"  Elements of the principles and theories of human relations and interaction are present in both interpersonal communication and gossip. Does it, therefore, mean that a major part of the semantic content of people's daily dyad is scuttle-butt?

March 7, 2008:  Paul Nnodim will present "The Burden of Global Poverty: Global Justice in the Age of Globalization".  The lecture will examine some recent statistics on world poverty and conflicting theories of global justice (neo-Malthusianism, social liberalism, and cosmopolitanism).

April 11, 2008:  Deb Foss

2006-2007 Presentations

2005-2006 Presentations

2004-2005 Presentations

2003-2004 Presentations

2002-2003 Presentations