Dr. Harry Schwarzweller has made a career of looking at the lives and times of rural communities in a world where technology is making us more accessibleand alienatedall at once.

Schwarzweller will bring those insights to the West Virginia University community on Thursday (Oct. 28) when he delivers this years Anna Deane Carlson lecture at 7 p.m. in the Erickson Alumni Center.

His talk,Remembering Community in the Global Swirl,is sponsored by WVU s Division of Sociology and Anthropology in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.

Carlson is a 1943 sociology graduate and longtime benefactor of her alma mater. Her $1 million endowment to the Eberly College four years ago established the Anna Deane Carlson Chair in Social Sciences and its accompanying lecture.

Schwarzweller is this years Carlson chair.

Dr. Larry Nichols, interim sociology chair, said Schwarzwellers talk should literally hit home in West Virginia.

After all, Nichols said, the Mountain State has more than its share of rural places where that abiding sense of community continues to erode by the generationsas families die off and people move away, lured by the promise of paychecks and other social, economic considerations.

Schwarzweller, Nichols said, has charted the ever-changing fortunes of farming and dairy communities from Australia to Appalachian Kentucky and Michigans upper peninsula. Hes watched and noted, Nichols said, as one small German town has worked to keep up with changing trends and times.

Dr. Schwarzweller offers an exceptionally rich perspective on community life based on may years of careful study in diverse nations around the world,Nichols said.He combines the disciplined analysis of a scholar with the enthusiasm of an eager, young studentwhich is a delightful blend.

Scharzweller is a professor emeritus of sociology at Michigan State University, and is the author of several textbooks, journal articles and papers.