On Thursday, Feb. 4, the UW-Platteville College of Liberal Arts and Education will host the fourth installment of the LAE faculty forum series, “Food Fights: Latin American Intertexuality in Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon and One Hundred Years of Solitude.” The presentation will be held in the Lundeen Lecture Hall, located in Doudna Hall on the UW-P campus, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Refreshments will be served and both students and community members are welcome to attend.

Chris Schulenburg, assistant professor of humanities, will be presenting his research on the different representations and connotations of food in two prominent Latin American novels. “Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon” was written by Jorge Amado in the 1950s and takes place in Brazil. “One Hundred Years of Solitude” is a Columbian-based novel that was written by Gabriel García Márquez in the 1960s.

“Food serves as a common, but contrasting, dialogue between these two novels,” Schulenburg said. “I will be discussing how the differences in location and time period affected how food was referred to in the separate texts.

“I am very excited to give students and community members an opportunity to learn about the culture of another region,” he added.

Melissa Gormley, assistant professor of history, will serve as the respondent for the forum. She states that this presentation, although grounded in literature, brings many other things to the table.

“This lecture has many aspects that will catch the interest of the audience,” Gormley said. “People with interests in history, agriculture, sociology, art and various other topics can connect to this material because it is oriented to many different areas of study.”

Gormley also said that she is excited to work with Schulenburg, stating that his thorough research and his great energy and passion will give the forum an interesting and enjoyable dynamic.

The faculty forum series began in the fall of 2004 when Mittie Nimocks, dean of the College of LAE, started the program, said Mary NechvatalUW-P dean’s assistant. Patrick Hagen, chair of the humanities department, states that this series presents a unique opportunity for all parties involved with the program, especially UW-P faculty.

“UW-P is a strong teaching school, but our faculty members are also fine scholars who work hard on their individual research,” Hagen said. “The faculty forum series is a good venue for our faculty to show what kinds of research projects they undertake and to connect with the student body and community.”

The 2009-10 LAE faculty forum series will continue on Thursday, March 4 with “A National Study of the Environmental Literacy of Middle School Students: Study Design and Results,” presented by William McBeth with respondent Jackson Zimmerman. The series will come to a close on Thursday, April 1 with “Wii, MySpace and ipod,” presented by Marc Wruble with respondent Alison Bunte.