The College of Liberal Arts and Education will be hosting a Faculty Forum “East of the Sun and West of the Moon: The Land, Light and Life of the Sámi People” on Dec. 6.

David Schuler, assistant professor of theatre, will be presenting an introduction of the culture and history of the Sámi people, an overview of where they live, how they’ve changed and where the Sámi people came from.

“This is intended for students. It’s not so academic that it’s unapproachable,” Schuler said.”If people don’t have a context of the history of these people, they won’t understand the specific details about the culture.”

The Sámi are a group of people in Northern Europe living in large areas of Scandinavia, Northern Finland and Northwestern Russia, Patrick Hagen, foreign laguage professor, said.

According to utexas.edu/courses/sami, Sámi people typically moved around and were hunters and gatherers. They were most commonly known for their reindeer herding.

With increasing environmental disturbances and devastation, the Sámi people’s form of life has been embraced with mounting interest.

“It is an interesting topic not only for a historical aspect but as the U.S. becomes more multicultural and when different people are living in the same area,” Hagen said.

Hagen will be be speaking about the intercultural communication of the Sámi people during the forum.

For Hagen, the Sámi culture is an ancestral interest also.

“My great-grandmother was a Sámi,” Hagen said. “They were oppressed and forced to stop using their language. It’s a personal interest for me to find out more about the culture and why they were thought of as negative.”

The College of LAE faculty forum began four years ago by Mittie Nimocks, dean of the College of LAE, and is held, on average, 3 times a semester, Carolyn Fries, administrative assistant to LAE, said.

The forum will be held 5 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 6, in the Thomas B. Lundeen Lecture Hall in Doudna. Admission is free and open to the public. There will be a question-and-answer session to follow the forum. Refreshments will also be provided.

Upcoming forums sponsored by the college of LAE for next semester are, “Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Violent Causal Agents, Psychological Debilitation and New Findings on Effective Treatment,” presented by Steven Benish with respondent Dr. Patricia Bromley on Feb. 7, 2008; “Snowballs, Hothouses, Icehouses and Greenhouses: Earth’s Past and Future Climates” presented by Dr. Elmo Rawling with respondent Dr. Richard Waugh on March 6, 2008; and “To Europe and Back Again: An Educator’s Path Toward Advocating International Education,” presented by Dr. Gregory Imbur with respondent Dr. Jennifer Mandel.