QUEST TO FEATURE 120 TALKS, ADIRONDACK HISTORY KEYNOTE
OSWEGO -- In addition to more than 200 presenters
from the SUNY Oswego campus community, this year's Quest on Wednesday,
April 21, will feature a keynote speaker on Adirondack history through
postcards. Dr. Robert Bogdan of Syracuse University's Maxwell School of
Citizenship and Public Affairs will speak at 2 p.m. in Room 104 of
Lanigan Hall.
Quest, Oswego's annual symposium dedicated to
sharing the scholarly and creative activity of students, faculty and
staff, will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Lanigan Hall and
Hewitt Union. About 120 presentations are scheduled this year, said
Bill Bosch, who chairs the campus committee that organizes Quest.
Bogdan is a distinguished professor of sociology and
cultural foundations of education at Syracuse and the co-author of two
widely used textbooks on qualitative research. The topic of his talk
will be the topic of his most recent research, "Constructing the Worlds
of Adirondack Postcard Photographers."
"Through archival data, local histories, interviews
and research, he renders an historically specific context and, through
that, enlarges our view of the possibilities lying within the local,"
said Claire Putala of Oswego's curriculum and instruction department,
also a member of the Quest subcommittee. "Bogdan has created a
compelling new genre of his own that provides insight into how the past
might have looked and felt to those living and constructing it," she
added.
Bogdan has published widely. Among his many books
are the 1988 "Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and
Profit" and "Adirondack Vernacular," published last year. He received a
Fulbright award to teach and study at Stockholm University in 1996. His
doctorate is from Syracuse University.
Talks, readings and performances by individuals and
teams during Quest will range across the disciplines. For example:
- In "For Entertainment Purposes Only: The Genesis of
Belief," psychology major Erin Halligan will explore rationality,
deception and decision making through the lens of paranormal phenomena
at 8:45 a.m. in Room 104 of Lanigan Hall.
- Dr. Robert Ballentine of the meteorology department
will present a simulation of January's snowstorm at 9 a.m. in Room 103
of Lanigan Hall.
- At 9 a.m. in Room 223 of Hewitt Union, a women's
studies panel of students will include several talks addressing what
feminism is, natural versus ethical caring, the sexual double standard,
how to decode gendered language, and Mexican women artists' versions of
the Virgin of Guadalupe.
- Dr. Tim Delaney of the sociology department will
speak on "Upstate New York Street Gangs: Murder and Mayhem in Thruway
Cities" at 10 a.m. in Room 104 of Lanigan Hall.
The day's program and abstracts will be available on
the Web at www.oswego.edu/celt/.
Printed versions will be available on April 21 in Hewitt Union and
Lanigan Hall.