@WEST news : Author, Scholar bell hooks To Speak At West Event

Noted author, speaker and scholar bell hooks will be speaking at West campus Feb. 14 as part of ASU’s Project Humanities spring 2011 kickoff events.

The events start Feb. 13, hooks will speak about “Race and Gender: Reimagining the Past” on the Tempe Campus. Events will take place univerity-wide. Hooks’ discussion at West is about the movie and book “The Help.” Admission to all events is free and open to the public.

“This is a very overt celebration of humanities and an effort to raise awareness of the complexities and importance of humanities, both in terms of research and in terms of public programs,” said Neal Lester, Dean of Humanities at Tempe’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Marlene Tromp, director of West’s Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies division said hooks’ visit is an amazing occasion.

“We were delighted when bell hooks, influential cultural critic, public intellectual, and author of over 33 books agreed to come to ASU to visit our campus,” she said. “This is an extraordinary opportunity for our students and faculty to meet one of the most influential American academics and writers alive today. Our event at West campus will allow the audience to engage in dialogue with bell hooks.”

The theme for the events is “Humanities at the Crossroads: Perspectives on Place.”

“One of the conversations that gets started is ‘Where are you from?’” Lester said. “Place is one of those ways we connect. Place is also relevant to ASU’s place among other research institutions and the place of social embeddedness.”

Other events include artist Vernon Burt, a debate titled “Truth is Overrated” and an African-American poetry discussion.

For more information, visit http://humanities.asu.edu or “like” their facebook page “Project Humanities.”