Armstrong State University is pleased to announce the schedule for the 2016-2017 Moveable Feast lecture and performance series, presented by the university’s esteemed College of Liberal Arts faculty in historic venues throughout Savannah. All events are free and open to the public.
 
The Moveable Feast’s October 27 kick-off marks Armstrong’s fourth consecutive year of featuring monthly lectures and performances by distinguished faculty. The goal of the Moveable Feast series is to celebrate the vital role the liberal arts play in keeping the ideal of democratic education alive. This year’s lineup will include lectures on a variety of topics and conclude with a theatrical performance.
 
“Armstrong’s Moveable Feast series offers engaging lectures to the Savannah community, which celebrate the joy of lifelong learning,” said Dr. Teresa Winterhalter, professor of English and associate dean of Armstrong’s College of Liberal Arts. “We invite the public to share an evening with our accomplished faculty, exploring thought-provoking ideas in a wide range of fields.”
 
Members of the media may contact Melanie Simón at [email protected] or 912.344.2904 for more information and interview/image requests. The complete schedule of events follows.
 
Thursday, October 27, 2016, 6 p.m.
“Grappling with Nuances: Political Contexts and Economic Platforms in the 2016 General Election”

Dr. Lara Wessel, Department of Political Science, and Dr. Nicholas Mangee, Department of Economics
Kennedy Pharmacy, 323 East Broughton St.
 
Poilitical Science Professor Lara Wessel and Economics Professor Nicholas Mangee grapple with the nuances of Hillary Clinton’s and Donald Trump’s political and economic policies. Wessel will present an overview of both candidates’ policies, focusing on the embedded politics in their respective party’s platforms. She will emphasize the inter-party and intra-party rhetoric that has defined this election cycle, teasing out the potential short-term and long-term consequences for the political parties themselves, the electorate and the presidential election process. Mangee will survey the candidates’ most significant economic policy proposals. He will discuss how, throughout the campaigns, both Clinton and Trump have cultivated positions on immigration, wages, infrastructure, taxes, education and national defense. By highlighting their positions on these issues, he will compare their positions based on their implications for economic growth. Wessel holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Mangee earned a Ph.D. from the University of New Hampshire.
 
Thursday, December 8, 2016, 6 p.m.
“Landscapes of Unrest: Visual Narratives of Environmentalism and Civil Rights in Photographic Stills”
Dr. Regina Bradley, Department of Languages, Literature and Philosophy, and Angela Horne, Department of Art, Music and Theatre
Jepson Center, 207 West York Lane
 
Examining how landscape photography can function as a visual narrative, Angela Horne, an associate professor of Visual Arts, and Dr. Regina Bradley, assistant professor of African-American Culture, will discuss how seemingly "still" images of a landscape are translated into stories that inform the way we engage with modern American culture and society. Focusing on images from the exhibition Watershed: Contemporary Landscape Photography (currently on display at the Jepson Center), Horne will analyze the relationships between people and the environment that these prints encompass. Drawing upon another manifestation of “still landscape” photography, Bradley will explore how visual images of the Civil Rights Movement shape our understanding of a Southern culture-scape today. She will direct our gaze beyond these images to observe connections between the visual narratives and the protests taking place in the post-Civil Rights South. Together, Horne, who earned a M.F.A. from Georgia Southern University, and Bradley, who holds a Ph.D. from Florida State University, will expose the unsettling social significance of stillness in these exposures.   
 
Thursday, January 26, 2017, 6:30 p.m.
“Women in Conflict:  Constructing Identity in the Twentieth Century During Dictatorship and War”
Dr. Hapsatou Wane, Department of Languages, Literature and Philosophy, and Dr. Allison Scardino Belzer, Department of History
Armstrong House, 447 Bull St.
 
Drawing from distinct historical moments and settings, Comparative Literature Assistant Professor Hapsatou Wane and History Associate Professor Allison Scardino Belzer will explore how women writers respond to political and military conflict. Wane will evaluate how Afro-Brazilian women use stories of insurrection to represent the muddy entanglements of their identities. In particular, she will examine the role memories of slavery, colonialism and military dictatorship play in the construction of black selfhood. Belzer will analyze how women living at the Italian front responded to the violence they experienced during the First World War. She will emphasize how, as civilians and volunteer medical personnel, these women resisted military occupation and promoted Italian patriotism, all the while redefining what femininity could mean in the early 20th century. Wane holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Belzer has a Ph.D. from Emory University.
 
Thursday, April 6, 2017, 6 p.m.
“From Peril to Promise:  The Social Responsiveness of American Theater in the 1930s and 40s”
Pam Sears, Department of Art, Music and Theatre, and company
American Legion Ballroom, 1108 Bull St.
 
Out of the instability of the 1930s and ‘40s, playwrights, theater artists and composers created inspirational, socially responsive work with innovative theatrical practices. Doing so, they offered theatergoers an experience that encouraged new perspectives and lightened the burden of the day-to-day realities of economic depression and world war. By reacting to the perilous atmosphere of those decades with dramatic reflections on their situations, many playwrights hoped they might inspire individuals to conceive a propitious future. Join a company of Armstrong’s outstanding musical and theatrical performers and directors as they explore scenes from popular dramatic works of the period by Tennessee Williams, Rodgers and Hammerstein and Kaufman and Hart, demonstrating how these players promoted stability and hope during this extraordinary period in American theater.