Pulitzer nominee presents racial issues By Jason Rhodes Dr. Susan Gubar, the co-author of The Madwoman in the Attic, a book once nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, will speak next Wednesday, Jan. 20 at 7:30 p.m. in AD 28. Gubar, a professor of English at Indiana University and a pioneering cultural critic, will be speaking about racial issues in the United States in conjunction with her latest book, Racechanges: White Skin, Black Face in American Culture (Oxford University Press, 1997). Visiting assistant professor of English Katharine Ings set up Gubar's visit to GC. Gubar is Ings' Ph.D. advisor at Indiana University. Gubar's lecture, titled "Women Artists and Contemporary Racechanges," will draw upon her recent work and be accompanied by a visual presentation. Praise for Gubar's latest book has been rampant. Racechanges has been referred to by American author and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison as "brilliant scholarship of tremendous significance to American letters." Chair of Harvard University's Afro-American studies department Henry Louis Gates Jr. has called the book, "a major contribution to cultural criticism and to the literature on the idea of race." "We are really very privileged to have her," said Ings. "She is a dynamic, energetic speaker ... accessible to both the student body and the faculty. We have a wonderful opportunity to hear her speak." Ings said that students might recognize Gubar's name from The Madwoman in the Attic, which she co-authored with Sandra Gilbert and was a Pulitzer Prize runner-up. Ings said Gubar's work can also be found in the Norton Anthology of Literature by Women, now in its second edition. With the campus celebration of Martin Luther King day on Monday, Ings said that Gubar's visit is well timed. "Her talk should be a way to open up more discussion on racial and social issues on campus in the spirit of MLK," she said. |