Dr. Lauren Berlant of the University of Chicago will deliver the David L. Kubal Memorial Lecture on Tuesday, May 13, 2014 at 6:15pm in the Los Angeles Room, located on the third floor of the University-Student Union (map to this event).
Dr. Berlant's work has made indispensable contributions to our understanding of affect and the relationships between subjectivity, community, and the political. Her recent Cruel Optimism (Duke, 2011) won the American Comparative Literature Association's René Wellek Prize for its argument that optimism must be recast not as an emotion, but as "the affective structure of attachment that enables people to survive and even flourish amidst the ordinariness of life-in-crisis, life without foundations, anchors, or footing."
Dr. Berlant's talk is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. There may be a nominal fee for parking.
The David L. Kubal Memorial Lecture is an annual lecture sponsored by the CSULA Department of English. Dr. Berlant's appearance is co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Genders and Sexualities, the American Communities Program, and the Center for Contemporary Poetry and Poetics, with special thanks to the Cross Cultural Centers for their support.
2014 David L. Kubal Memorial Lecture featuring Dr. Lauren Berlant (flyer)