MEDIA CONTACT:
Polly Burks, 561-297-2595,
pburks@fau.edu

BOCA RATON, FL (February 1, 2006) - The Public Intellectuals Student Association (PISA) representing Florida Atlantic University’s Ph.D. in Comparative Studies Program will host the conference “The Arts, Culture and Society: Intersections of Class, Race and Gender” on Friday, February 24 from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and Saturday, February 25 from 8:30 am to 6:45 pm. The conference will be held in the Social Sciences Building, Room 250 on FAU’s Boca Raton campus, 777 Glades Road.

The conference will examine how the intersections of race, class and gender inform historical, sociological, linguistic, literary and media studies. This conference will also provide avenues of discussion relating to ethnic, class and sexual identity, collective consciousness, collective action, as well as the contribution that academic research can bring to such issues.

Keynote speakers include Vincent Mosco, Max Castro and Tracy Denean Sharpley-Whiting. Mosco holds the Canada Research Chair in Communication and Society at Queen’s University in Canada. He is the author of numerous books, articles and policy reports on the media, telecommunications, computers and information technology. Castro is a sociologist, independent researcher, writer, editor and translator. In the spring of 2006, he will assume the position of associate director of research and studies at the Foundation for Environmental Security and Sustainability. Sharpley-Whiting is the director of African-American and Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt University. She is currently working on two books, one on young black women and hip hop culture and the other on black women in Paris from the 17th to the 19th centuries.

Plenary Sessions on “Education, the Community and Interdisciplinarity” and “Framing War and Protest” will be held on Saturday, February 25. Plenary session participants include Sherry Lee Linkon, Carlos Diaz, Juan Carlos Gonzales, Lois Wolfe, Robert P. Watson, Jill Jenkins Liberto, Marie Exantus, Kevin Petrich and Samiah Seramur.

Registration is free, and pre-registration is recommended at: http://www.fau.edu/PISA/index.htm. For additional information, call Jacqui May at 561-297-3439.

-FAU-