PSU lecture series examines reaction to pollution at Grand Lake and Lake of the Ozarks
Friday, February 28, 2014 2:00 AM
News
Pittsburg, KS
Experts from the worlds of science, the arts, communication and philosophy will spend Monday, March 3, examining pollution at Grand Lake and Lake of the Ozarks and public reaction to those events. The discussion is part of Pittsburg State University’s Interdisciplinary Lecture Series, sponsored by PSU’s Departments of Communication and Art.
The spring lecture series builds on “Living in a Corporate World,” an exhibit by artist Chad Erpelding, now on display in PSU’s University Gallery, and the PSU Theatre production of Henrik Ibsen’s play, “An Enemy of the People,” which concludes on Sunday, March 2.
In Ibsen’s play, written more than 120 years ago, a local doctor is ostracized by business interests in a community when he discovers that the municipal baths, which draw tourists to the town, are poisoned. The lecture series will examine possible parallels or comparisons to recent stories about pollution at Grand Lake and Lake of the Ozarks caused by agricultural and urban runoff.
Each of the eight speakers for the lecture series will talk for 20 minutes. The morning session will focus on “Sustainability: Grand Lake and Lake of the Ozarks.” The afternoon topic will be “Why do people lie? Perspectives.”
The lecture series begins at 10 a.m. in the University Gallery in Porter Hall and is free and open to the public.
The schedule of speakers:
Sustainability: Grand Lake and Lake of the Ozarks
• 10-10:20 a.m. – Jim Triplett, PSU professor of biology. Triplett is the chair of the Neosho Basin Advisory Committee and served as chair of Council of Basin Chairs from 1986 – 2007. He is a member of the Spring River Watershed Restoration and Protection Leadership Team, and of the Executive Committee for Lower Shoal Creek Partnership. He is the president of the Grand Lake 'O Cherokees Watershed Alliance Foundation, Inc., and the vice-chair of the Grand Lake Watershed Council.
• 10:30-10:50 – Wally Kennedy, “Looking the Other Way.” Kennedy, a graduate of the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia, has been a staff writer for the Joplin Globe for 37 years, covering a variety of subjects that have included the environment, energy and education.
• 11-11:20 – Alicia Mason, “A Failure to Serve: Media Framing of the 2011 BGA Outbreak on Grand Lake O' the Cherokees.” Mason, a member of the faculty in the PSU Department of Communication, is a former broadcaster, who worked with local media outlets KOAM and KKOW in southeast Kansas prior to receiving a Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma. Mason's academic interests in risk/crisis communication span into organizational/business, public health, and environmental contexts.
• 11:30-11:50 – Catherine Hooey. Hooey is a member of the faculty in PSU’s Department of History, Philosophy and Social Sciences, where she teaches courses in world regional geography, environmental geography, global environmental changes and geography of hazards and disasters. Her research focuses on human-environment interaction.
Open Discussion 11:50 a.m.-12:20 p.m.
Why do people lie? Perspectives
• 1:30-1:50 p.m. – Henrik Ibsen (represented by Joey Pogue, director of “An Enemy of the People”). Joey Pogue joined the PSU Department of Communication in the fall of 2004. He teaches media theory, interpersonal communication and gender studies to both undergraduate and graduate students.
• 2-2:20 – Julie Allison, “Layers of Lies.” Allison is a professor in the PSU Department of Psychology and Counseling. Her areas of interest include gender issues, interpersonal relationships, interpersonal violence, as well as death and dying.
• 2:30-2:50 – James McBain, “What's Lie Got to Do, Got to Do With It?” McBain is an assistant professor of philosophy in the Department of History, Philosophy, and Social Sciences at PSU. He works in the areas of ethics and epistemology.
• 3-3:20 – Shirley Drew, “Verbal and Nonverbal Deception.” Drew is a professor of communication at PSU and has been teaching and living in the Sunflower State since 1989. Her teaching areas include organizational communication, theory and qualitative research methods. Her research is primarily qualitative (ethnographic) and includes ritual, group culture, and occupational culture.
Open Discussion 3:20-3:45 p.m.
• 7-8 p.m. – Chad Erpelding, Artist’s Talk. Erpelding is an associate professor of art and the graduate program director, Boise (Idaho) State University. Through his art, Erpelding investigates the physical and mental spread of culture on a global scale through references to maps and charts. He emphasizes globalization’s role in producing greater connectivity between increasingly complex environments through political systems, urban/suburban development, individual travel, and international business organizations.