Guest lecturers to speak about war at seminar

The 2011-12 Remak New Knowledge Seminar at IU will explore the paradoxical phenomenon of a nation engaged in war that exhibits no tangible “at war” feeling.

The seminar, The In/Visibility of America’s 21st Century Wars, will feature a series of lectures by a variety of speakers as well as discussions facilitated by IU faculty from various disciplines.

The seminar is restricted to faculty members in the Department of Communication and Culture, but the lectures given by guest speakers will be open to the public. 

Participants will have the opportunity to engage in the media that portrays the 21st century war experience for today’s America, including video games, film and
photography.

Organized by Department of Communication and Culture faculty members John Lucaites and Jon Simons, the seminar compliments the 2011 Fall Themester Making War, Making Peace.

The seminar will explore the normalization of war in the 21st century and how it is portrayed in the media.

“War has become somewhat invisible to us,” Lucaites said. “We seem to live in the midst of this perpetual war. It is visible to us, but it’s almost like we don’t see it.”

Lucaites, a professor, and Simons, an associate professor, have been named Henry H.H. Remak Distinguished Scholars by the IU Institute for Advanced Study for their winning Remak New Knowledge Seminar proposal.

The guest lectures, all of which are free and open to the public, will take place at 7 p.m. in the IU Fine Arts Auditorium (FA 015) on their corresponding dates.

An additional set of four lectures will be in the spring semester.

“We hope (audience members) come away with greater insight,” Simon said. “In particular, with a better understanding of the way that war is normalized in contemporary visual public culture, how it’s made to appear like the normal state of affairs rather than a great exception.”