Past Programs
WVU Cultural Attaches Program | Brown Bag Lunch Film and Discussion SeriesThe Benefits of Being Appalachian Series
WVU Cultural Attaches Program
The WVU Office of Student Life - Multicultural Programs will continue to host the WVU Cultural Attaches Program, offering presentations by official representatives of nations located on different continents to inform the WVU community about their cultures and current themes of interest. The goal is to enhance the WVU community's intercultural awareness and understanding of other peoples and cultures.
April 8 - The People's Republic of China
7:30 PM, Ballroom, Mountainlair
Dr. You Shaozhong, Minister Counselor for Education of the Chinese Embassy
Mr. Jiangyi Liu, Third Secretary for Education of the Chinese Embassy
April 17 - Mexico
7:00 P.M. Ming Hsieh Hall G20 (formerly Oglebay G20)
Mr. Juan Garcia de Oteyza, Minister Cultural Attaché to the Embassy of Mexico in the United States
Brown Bag Lunch Film and Discussion Series
The Office of Student Life – Multicultural Programs will continue to host a brown bag lunch film and discussion series on Thursdays from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 pm. During the Spring 2008, these Thursday lunches will take place at the Shenandoah Room in the Mountainlair and will provide opportunities for us to approach various cultures.
A different culture will be profiled each week by the appropriate representative from that country/culture and by showing a short film with an opportunity for discussion afterwards as follows.
Please plan on attending these informative and thought-provoking presentations. These events are free and open to all WVU faculty, staff and students. Free pizza will be available on a first come, first served basis. Come join us at the Shenandoah Room in the Mountainlair. Please watch for updates on these events. For more information, please call 293-7029.
2/14/08 – Film and Discussion: Pane e Tulipani
11:30 AM to 1:00 PM, Shenandoah Room, Mountainlair
A mistreated wife is accidentally forgotten at a highway rest area and finds her freedom when she decides to take a holiday in Venice, Italy. Pane e Tulipani (Bread and Tulips) is an internationally acclaimed romantic comedy not just limited to those who speak Italian. The Italian Studies Club (Circolo Italiano), the WVU Italian Studies Program, and Brown Bag Lunch Film and Discussion Series will present the film.
Pane e Tulipani reflects the combined efforts of the WVU Appalachian Cultures Committee and the Office of Student Life--Multicultural Programs to showcase the impact of Italian culture on Appalachia. West Virginia, as well as other regions of Appalachia, has benefited greatly from the influence of Italian culture, and this film seeks to bring another facet to the understanding that there are still strong Appalachian and Italian connections. The showing is open to all and pizza will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis. The film will be followed by a discussion facilitated by the Italian Studies Program and the Italian Studies Club.
2/21/08 – Film and Discussion: Ethnic Notions
11:30 AM to 1:00 PM, Shenandoah Room, Mountainlair
Ethnic Notions is Marion Riggs Emmy-winning documentary that takes viewers on a disturbing voyage through American history, tracing deep-rooted stereotypes which have fueled anti-Black prejudice. Through these images, we can begin to understand the evolution of racial consciousness in America.
2/28/08 – Film and Discussion: No Other Gods: Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Decalogue I
11:30 AM to 1:00 PM, Shenandoah Room, Mountainlair
This short film, directed by the late Polish atteur Kieslowski, is part of a ten-part series based loosely on the Ten Commandments. Decalogue I focuses on Krzysztof, a rational, scientific man and his relationship with his gifted son. This film is philosophically provocative and hauntingly beautiful.
3/6/08 – Film and Discussion: West Virginia’s Spectral Heritage: Spirits and Monsters from the Mountains
11:30 AM to 1:00 PM, Shenandoah Room, Mountainlair. Download the flyer (185 K, PDF Format)
Ghost stories are tightly woven into the social history of West Virginia and Appalachia. Join social historian Jason Burns for a discussion, aided by film clips, of West Virginia's famed ghost stories and monster tales, including the Braxton County Monster, Mothman, Sheepsquatch, Bighoot, and a ghost story from every county in the state. Ghost stories, around which this program is based, have their origins in cautionary tales. These stories sought to warn the people against the dangers present in their everyday lives. However, there is more to a ghost story than a simple warning. These stories can teach us how to live, how to treat one another, what we should aspire to become, and remind us of our humanity.
3/13/08 – Film and Discussion: France
11:30 AM to 1:00 PM, Shenandoah Room, Mountainlair
Megan Hoover and Lindsey Daugherty, students in the Foreign Languages Department of French will present Virtual Vendée: Vodcasting Culture and Language from the Field... and from the Sea, an original vodcast (video podcast) produced by students participating in West Virginia University in Vendée, France. The presentatino includes interviews, images, action shots, and more – all on the shores of the Atlantic Coast of France.
3/20/08 – Film and Discussion: Immigration the U.S.
11:30 AM to 1:00 PM, Shenandoah Room, Mountainlair
Dr. Susan C. Pearce, Visiting Assistant Professor, WVU Division of Sociology and Anthropology, will present The Guestworker. This 2006 film comes at a time in American history when deliberations over migration from Mexico are exceptionally heated. Phrases such as 'illegal aliens,' 'closing the gate,' and 'guest worker' have become essential to our national lexicon. The Guestworker tells the story of Don Candelario Gonzalez Moreno, a 66-year old Mexican farmer who has been coming to the U.S. since the 1960s as a farm laborer. Filmed across two years in North Carolina and Mexico, this film paints a personal portrait of Don Cande and offers an insider’s perspective on life as a circular migrant.
4/3/08 – Film and Discussion: Japan
11:30 AM to 1:00 PM, Shenandoah Room, Mountainlair
Ms. Asako No, Lecturer, ECAS-Foreign Languages Department at WVU and Coordinator of the Japanese Program and Toni Hando, Graduate Assistant in Human Resources in the Foreign Language Department at WVU
Astro Boy was the first Japanese anime; more than 190 30-minute episodes were produced between 1963 and 1966. Blast off for adventure with these episodes of the first anime television show ever produced, which aired in Japan and the U.S. in the 1960s. In Astro Boy, it's the year 2000, and a scientist creates a robot in the image of his deceased son. Director Miyazaki Hayao's 1997 release Princess Mononoke is an anime epic that made film critic Roger Ebert's list of 1999's ten best films.
Infected with an incurable disease, Prince Ashitaka (voiced by Yoji Matsuda) travels to the Far East in search of a cure and finds himself caught in a battle between the forest's animals and a mining town.
4/10/08 – Film and Discussion: Council on Sexual Orientation
11:30 AM to 1:00 PM, Shenandoah Room, Mountainlair
John H. Hagen, Chair, Council on Sexual Orientation at WVU
4/17/08 – Film and Discussion: Singapore
11:30 AM to 1:00 PM, Shenandoah Room, Mountainlair
Debbi P. Goh, student from Singapore
4/24/08 – Film and Discussion: Latin America
11:30 AM to 1:00 PM, Shenandoah Room, Mountainlair
Gary Laruta, President of the Latin American Student Association (LASO)
The Benefits of Being Appalachian Series
Presented by the Appalachian Cultures Committee.1/28/08 - The Financial Benefits of Being Appalachian
6:30 - 8:30 PM, Greenbrier Room, Mountainlair
The WVU Appalachian Cultures Committee presents a financial aid panel presentation for Appalachian students at WVU. Join Dr. Rudy Almasy (Associate Dean for Eberly College), Anita Mayer (Director of Undergraduate Advising and McNair Scholars Program Director), Brian Hoover and Amanda Thompson (Undergraduate Scholarship Office), and Kaye Widney, (Director of Financial Aid and Scholarships), for a presentation on general financial aid, availability of scholarships, and financing graduate education. The presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session.
1/29/08 - Dialects in West Virginia: Fact and Fiction and How to Learn from Both
7:00 – 8:00 PM
The WVU Appalachian Cultures Committee presents the program Dialects in West Virginia by Dr. Kirk Hazen, Associate Professor and Director of the West Virginia Dialect Project. Dr. Hazen will lead an interactive presentation on the myths and realities of West Virginia dialects. He will present findings from recent research on dialects in West Virginia and answer a wide range of questions about English in Appalachia. Refreshments will follow Dr. Hazen’s presentation. This program is part of the Benefits of Being Appalachian series.
2/4/08 - Afrilachia
11:30 AM to 12:30 PM, at the Mountainlair in Hatfield’s B
3/3/08 - The Rotten Truth About Oral Health in West Virginia
7 PM, Shenandoah Room, Mountainlair.
3/11/08 - Women's History in West Virginia: Places Where West Virginia Women Made History
7:30 - 9:00 PM, Shenandoah Room, Mountainlair.
The WVU Appalachian Cultures Committee presents, as part of the series "The Benefits of Being Appalachian," the presentation by Dr. Barb Howe, Director, Center for Women's Studies and Associate Professor of History, titled Places Where West Virginia Women Made History. In honor of Women’s History Month, Dr. Howe offers a virtual tour of West Virginia that is combined with a history of West Virginia women, with stops at historic sites around the state, from Mary Draper Ingles’s journey through the New River Gorge to the present.
3/18/08 - Performance by Kate Long and Robin Kessinger
7:00 - 9:00 PM, Gluck Theater, Mountainlair.
The WVU Appalachian Cultures Committee presents as part of the series "The Benefits of Being Appalachian," a performance by Kate Long and Robin Kessinger, which closes “The Benefits of Being Appalachian” series. This performance includes Appalachian traditional and contemporary music, laughter, thought-provoking stories, and muc more. Join us for this collaboration between two of Appalachia’s most compelling performers. a performance by Kate Long including traditional tunes, new songs and storytelling with music. A reception in the Vandalia Lounge will follow the performance.