Talks at MTSU

I thought I would post about these upcoming talks at MTSU this week and next. I'm pretty excited about them. I've always liked nerding out and going to talks - when I still lived at home, I got to see a bunch because of Yale, UCONN and Trinity College being so close...My favorite was when Lili Taylor came to the Wadworth Atheneum to give a talk about her role in 'I Shot Andy Warhol.'

So, anyway, on Thursday at 7:00pm in Todd 204 there will be a Somali immigrant panel. Some people from both the Somali Community Center in Nashville as well as some immigrants will be there to talk about issues and challenges they've had as well as opportunities they've experienced. I think this will be a good one. Immigrant issues are important to me personally as my mom is an immigrant to this country. Granted, she's from Canada but she moved here on her own when she was in her 20s and she had to learn a whole new language - so these sorts of things are always of interest to me.

The other talk is on Monday the 24th. It's called "The Simulacrum of Jerusalem: Manufacturing the Religious Sublime in the Holy Land Experience Biblical Theme Park," and is being given by Dr. Bill Levine who is on the faculty here at MTSU. This talk will be held in the Faculty Senate Room, JUB 100, 11:30-12:30 p.m. I'm super interested in this talk because in CT, we had Holyland. I've only seen pictures of it, but I'm planning on checking it out when I go to visit my mom later this spring. Of course the Holyland in Waterbury is nothing like these Bible theme parks, but they do relate to one another.

Okay, now that I've written about these talks - is anyone watching Dancing with the Stars? I sort of tune in sometimes, mostly because my mom always asks me if I've seen it and I can see she wants to talk about it, so I watch and we talk about it. I missed it last night because I forgot about it, but I should be able to catch some of it tonight if it does not interfere with Law & Order, or if I'm not too caught up making more dolls.