SCHUYLKILL HAVEN, Pa. -- Penn State Schuylkill announced their faculty research seminar series for fall 2013. The opening seminar is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 18. Valerie Schrader, assistant professor of communications, will present “Finding Meanings in 'Wicked,' 'Hairspray' &' 9 to 5': Rhetorical Criticism and Musical Theatre Texts” beginning at noon in the Health and Wellness building, Room 201 at Penn State Schuylkill. The public is welcome and encouraged to attend. Light refreshments will be served.
Schrader will present her research from her various projects. Specific focus will be on her work on the popular musical "Wicked," which was the topic of her dissertation and a number of published research articles, one for which she received the National States Advisory Council’s Scholar of the Year Award in 2011. Schrader will also discuss her publications on the movie musical "Hairspray," the 1930s labor musical "Pins and Needles" and the old-fashioned western melodrama "Deadwood Dick" as well as her current research on the musical "9 to 5" and future projects she intends to pursue.
All sessions in the seminar series begin at noon in the Health and Wellness building, Room 201 at Penn State Schuylkill. Future sessions include:
Oct 16 -- “I’m Not a Musician, But I Play One on TV: Electronic Music and the Writing Classroom,” presented by Keith Duffy, associate professor of English, Penn State Schuylkill
Nov. 13 -- “Bisexuals and the Sex Differences in Jealousy Hypothesis,” Cory Scherer, assistant professor of psychology, Penn State Schuylkill
Dec. 4 -- “All in Our Family and Sometimes Our Church: Religiosity, Identities and Social Change Among LGBT Mormons and Their Parents,” Lauren J. Joseph, assistant professor of sociology, Penn State Schuylkill
For further information, contact Darcy L. Medica at 570-385-6176 or at dlm56@psu.edu.