Inside Iowa State

Jan. 26, 2007

People and place are focus of interdisciplinary symposium

by Erin Rosacker

A Jan. 30 symposium will feature 28 faculty members from disciplines throughout Iowa State. The four-part series runs from 8:15 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Memorial Union Pioneer Room.

"Mapping Territories: Dialogues on Places, Peoples, and Spatial Practices" will feature an assortment of presented papers, panel discussions and open question forums. Marwan Ghandour, associate professor in architecture, organized the symposium as part of this year's "Places, Peoples and Spatial Practices" series sponsored by the Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities (CEAH).

"Our interest is not only in the presentations themselves, but in the debate between the different presenters after the presentations," Ghandour said. "Accordingly, each session is divided equally between presentations and debate."

Admission to the event is free and open to the public. Organizers are encouraging campus classes to attend.

Ghandour will moderate the first session, "The Politics of Place." CEAH director Brenda Daly will moderate the second session, "Place and the Human Condition."

Following a lunch break, "Place and Identity" will be moderated by Lisa Schulte, assistant professor in natural resource ecology and management. The final session, "Investigating Place," will be moderated by Kimberly Elman Zarecor, assistant professor in architecture.

"The four-session subdivision came out of the pool of abstracts we had, where the organizing team discussed its possible grouping in order to create a constructive interdisciplinary debate," Ghandour said. "It is a unique forum for faculty from different departments to discuss their research work."

Ghandour said he hopes the symposium will help develop interdisciplinary collaborative research on campus by creating "more dialogue between ISU faculty from different departments."

"Mapping Territories: Dialogues on Places, Peoples and Spatial Practices"

• Jan. 30, 8:15 a.m.-6 p.m. (in 4 parts)
• MU Pioneer Room
• More

"It is a unique forum for faculty from different departments to discuss their research work."

- Marwan Ghandour