From racial stereotypes in the American novel to displacement and film-making in exile, West Virginia University’s 27th Annual Colloquium on Literature and Film, Oct. 10-12, will offer a wide variety of perspectives on race and racism. Professor Deborah Janson, colloquium director, regards this year’s program as”diverse in its representation of countries, ethnicities and concerns. With 42 different sessions, the forum provides an opportunity for scholars and students to come together and exchange ideas on a topic of great importance to society.”


Professor of Foreign Languages Janice Spleth, also a colloquium committee member, maintains that participants will”look at how race has been theorized over the centuries, how racial diversity is celebrated across various cultures, and what the expressions and consequences of racism are �€from the nature and function of stereotypes to slavery, colonialism and genocide.”


Houston Baker, professor of English and African-American literature at DukeUniversity, will deliver the keynote address,”Who’s Bamboozling Who?: Black Critique and Cooptation on the Big Screen,”at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 11, in the Mountainlair Gold Ballroom.


Baker is the author of a number of scholarly books on African-American literature and culture, including: Blues, Ideology and Afro-American Literature; Workings of the Spirit: The Poetics of Afro-American Women’s Writing; Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance; and Black Studies, Rap and the Academy . In addition, Baker, who is a past president of the Modern Languages Association, is experienced in addressing the issues of integrating minority literatures into the canon and curriculum.


Anne Russo, professor of womens studies at DePaulUniversity, will discuss”White Innocence/White Accountability: Race, Gender and the Construction of Criminality and Violence in the Media”on Friday at 1:30 p.m. in the Gold Ballroom.


Russo describes her talk as an analysis of”the ways that U.S. mainstream discourses construct whiteness as innocent and superior in the current war on terrorism, the war on drugs and the interconnected social response to men’s violence against women within and outside the U.S.”


A”Filmmakers’Forum”will take place at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 12, in the Mountainlair Rhododendron Room. Directors Reza Allamehzadeh, an exiled Iranian filmmaker living in the Netherlands, and Frank Beyer, former DEFA film director from East Germany, will discuss the portrayal of race in their films as well as the difficulties of living and working under repressive regimes.


Concluding the weekend’s events is a theater performance,”Mos pas connin. or Torment,”a one-act, one-woman show written by and starring WVU graduate, Nina Domingue. The show, which features nine characters who expose manifold aspects of racism, will run at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 12, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 13, at the Morgantown Theatre Company, 276 Walnut Street.


Tickets are $5 and may be obtained in advance by calling the Department of Foreign Languages, 293-5121, or MTC , 291-6826. Tickets may also be purchased at the door just prior to the performance. The play includes adult subject matter.


For more information about the colloquium and a complete listing of events and panel speakers, visit the Department of Foreign Languages’web site:http://www.as.wvu.edu/forlang/home.htm


All events are open to the public and all, except the theater performance, are free.