Vietnam War, protest films focus of lecture at OSU

Monday, April 14, 2008

Lecture and workshop are free and open to the public.
 
(April 14, 2008  STILLWATER, Okla.) – Author Franny Nudelman, an expert on war and violence, will speak on forms of protest during the Vietnam War on April 17 and 18 at Oklahoma State University.
 
Nudelman is an associate professor of English at Carleton University in Canada. Her current research examines cultural reflections of war and violence in documentary films. She is the author of “John Brown’s Body: Slavery, Violence, and the Culture of War.”
 
“With the current war going on, the topic of how people articulate and respond to war is a subject that many Americans are interested in,” said Laura Belmonte, associate professor of history and director of OSU’s American Studies Program.
 
The lecture, at 7 p.m. on April 17, will focus on the stories of two women who traveled to Hanoi to protest U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Both published book-length narratives about their travels, which document the resourcefulness of their North Vietnamese hosts. Nudelman will discuss how these narratives serve as a means of protest.
 
The workshop, at 3:30 p.m. on April 18, will explore the relationship between filmmaking and political radicalism. Nudelman will examine documentary films produced in the late 1960s including “In the Year of the Pig,” “Garbage” and “People’s War.”
 
Both events are free and open to the public. The April 17 lecture is in Room 101 of the Journalism and Broadcasting Building and the April 18 workshop is in Room 207 of the Classroom Building.
 
To learn more, phone Belmonte at (405) 744-8198 or visit http://history.okstate.edu/.