In this 90-minute, informal workshop Rebekah will walk us through how she uses professional editing software including PerfectIt and Macros. She may also highlight other materials in the Editor's Toolkit. Back by popular demand, Rebekah is offering this as a follow-up to her March 18 introduction to the world of scholarly editing. You are welcome to attend, whether you were at the first workshop or not! Attendees will have a chance to see how the software works and to ask Rebekah questions about her experiences in scholarly editing.

Greetings! In collaboration with the Comparative Literature Club, the PSU Department of Comparative Literature will be hosting a Virtual Open House on Monday, March 29, at 5:30 pm EDT.  All PSU students, faculty, staff, alumni, and club members are encouraged to attend.  

We especially welcome undergraduate students who are interested in majoring in Comparative Literature or adding a Minor in World Literature, and/or students interested in joining the Comparative Literature Club. 

The Open House will feature some brief remarks about the department and some introductions to faculty, staff, graduate students, undergraduate majors and minors, CMLIT club officers, and alumni, as well as information about departmental events. 

In this talk, I will chart a sexual trafficking enterprise in the first two chapters of the book of Esther. Sexual exploitation begins in chapter 1, when the king endeavors to subject Vashti to the sexualized gaze of his male guests. It is then intensified in chapter 2 when virgin girls throughout the king’s provinces are gathered and taken to the king’s palace for the purpose of sex. Attention is given to the role of intersectionality in the exploitation of these girls and women. 

Dr. Ericka Shawndricka Dunbar lives in Atlanta, GA, and teaches at Payne Theological Seminary. She received her Ph.D. in Biblical Studies (Old Testament) in May 2020 from Drew University. Her dissertation, entitled “Trafficking Hadassah: An Africana Reading of Collective Trauma, Memory, and Identity in the Book of Esther and the African Diaspora,” is a dialogical cultural study of sexual trafficking in the book of Esther and during the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

To register: https://psu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEod-mgrz4uEtCFDLmMh-q6QIUM-KvAkuIS

Sponsored by the department of Comparative Literature, department of Asian Studies, Center for Humanities and Information, and the Digital Culture and Media Initiative.

Rebekah Zwanzig is a freelance editor who has a passion for projects in the fields of religion, Arabic and Middle Eastern culture and thought, literature, and peacebuilding. She completed extensive graduate work in philosophy, religion, and comparative literature and used this knowledge to develop her expertise as an academic editor who works on material ranging from medieval Islamic history and philosophy to early modern literary studies and Japanese social and political history. Rebekah has worked on scholarly monographs, edited volumes, and articles for both individual clients and academic presses and journals in the United States and abroad.

This 90-minute, informal workshop is an opportunity to speak with her about specific methods, challenges, and approaches to professional work in the field of scholarly editing. She will discuss her experiences getting started in the business, some tips for success, and highlight some of her current projects.

Please register in advance.

We especially welcome undergraduate students who are interested in majoring in Comparative Literature or adding a Minor in World Literature, and/or students interested in joining the Comparative Literature Club. 

The Open House will feature some brief remarks about the department and some introductions to faculty, staff, graduate students, undergraduate majors and minors, CMLIT club officers, and alumni, as well as information about departmental events. 

Please email odb2@psu.edu for Zoom information.

    Password: 4213025 

"Voices of Power in Women’s Activism"

This year’s Marathon Read will celebrate the work of female writers and activists to expand political, social, and economic equality for women. The theme is “Voices of Power in Women’s Activism” and joins the College of the Liberal Arts in marking the 100-year anniversary of the passing of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Featured readings will include the work of Kate Chopin, Joy Harjo, Rebecca Solnit, Audre Lorde, Julie Otsuka, Sojourner Truth, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and others.

The 2020 edition of Marathon Read will be held virtually on Zoom with guest readers calling in from various Penn Stategroups. The event will begin at 10:00 AM and conclude at 10:00 PM on October 22, 2020.

Penn State Marathon Read – (psu.edu)

Luis Álvarez-Castro is Professor of Spanish in the department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies at the University of Florida, where he serves as associate chair and graduate coordinator. His research centers on nineteenth- and twentieth-century Spanish literature and culture, along with contemporary representations of that period. He is the author of Los espejos del yo: Existencialismo y metaficción en la narrativa de Unamuno (2015); La palabra y el ser en la teoría literaria de Unamuno (2005); and El universo femenino de Ángel Ganivet (1996). He is the editor of Approaches to Teaching the Works of Miguel de Unamuno (2020), and has published annotated editions of several nineteenth-century literary works, such as Ángel Ganivet’s Teatro y poesía; Luis Bonafoux’s El avispero; and Eugenio Antonio Flores’s Trata de blancas. His current projects include an annotated edition of Eduardo López Bago’s Carne importada. He is co-editor of the journal Decimonónica, and associate editor of the journals Siglo Diecinueve and Hispania.