Revolution in France, Incest in Novels and Theoretical Physics all Examined at Bowers Writers House

Provoking presentations hosted in September at Elizabethtown College

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Gail Bossenga

ELIZABETHTOWN, PA (09/08/2012)(readMedia)-- This month, Bowers Writers House at Elizabethtown College explores Victorian literature and physics during panel discussions, lectures and workshops. All events are first-come first-served. It is recommended to arrive at Bowers Writers House, 840 College Hill Lane, at least a half hour before the event as seating is limited.

Before the French Revolution, status and citizenship were problematic. The old regime organized society around inequality; however, the drive of the revolution was to create equality before the law. Dr. Gail Bossenga, Elizabethtown College Scholar-in-Residence, discusses these topics at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 13. Bossenga, who earned her doctorate in European History from the University of Michigan, is author of "The Politics of Privilege: Old Regime and Revolution in Lille" (Cambridge University Press), as well as numerous articles on the origins of the French Revolution.

At 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 18, Elizabethtown College Associate Professor Kimberly VanEsveld Adams offers explanation to "'This Brother Who Was not a Brother': Incestuous Affinities in Wuthering Heights." Early marriage definitions were different than today, and a number of Victorian writers thought that a good one began as a brotherly-sisterly relationship, but not between actual siblings. Gothic novels and Romantic poetry mostly focused on relationships between siblings and would usually end tragically. Adams looks at one extreme case: Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights," in which Heathcliff is Catherine Earnshaw's foster brother-and possibly even nearer kin than this-yet marriage is considered.

Theoretical physics can conjure images of bespectacled folks in front of old-school chalkboards, solving endless equations. But what does a theoretical physicist really do; what role does writing play in creative scientific work or in the classroom? At 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 19, Dr. David Lyons, Lebanon Valley College mathematics professor, offers his personal and professional perspectives about the world of particles, strings, quarks and dimensional shifts in "Knowing the Path, Walking the Path: Writing as a Conduit for Understanding and Discovery." Lyons' current research is in quantum information science-an interdisciplinary area involving mathematics, physics and computer science. His teaching-related scholarship is driven by a long-standing interest in the use of geometry and visualization for teaching mathematical concepts.

Her personal strategy for writing poems and her ups and downs in the publishing world is the focus of a craft talk and discussion by Jennifer Foerster at 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 27. Foerster, a poetess, earned her bachelor's degree from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M. and her master's degree in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Foerster has earned fellowships to attend Soul Mountain Retreat, the Naropa Summer Writing Program, the Idyllwild Summer Poetry Program, Dorland Mountain Arts Colony and the Vermont Studio Center. She was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford University and her poetry has been published in Ploughshares, Passages North and Many Mountains Moving, among other journals, and has been anthologized in New California Writing 2011 and Sing: Poetry from the Indigenous Americas.

All Bowers Writers House events are free and open to the public. Contact: Jesse Waters at writershouse@etown.edu or 717-689-3945.

Bowers Writers House at Elizabethtown College, 840 College Hill Lane, was created with a generous gift by Kenneth L. '59 and Rosalie E. '58 Bowers to support a culture of creative curiosity and foster a new sense of excitement and enthusiasm for intellectual diversity. The Bowers Writers House is an interdisciplinary venue for presentation, performance, expression and study. The programs-from dramatic readings to interactive panels to musical performances-offer a dynamic variety of enjoyable and informative experiences. Visit www.etown.edu/centers/writershouse.

Elizabethtown College, in south-central Pennsylvania, is a private coed institution offering more than four dozen liberal arts, fine and performing arts, science and engineering, business, communications and education degrees. Through personal attention, creative inspiration and academic challenge, Elizabethtown College students are encouraged to expand their intellectual curiosity and are given the opportunity to become an important part of the bigger world through experiential learning-research, internships and study abroad. Elizabethtown College's overall commitment to Educate for Service is fulfilled as students are taught intellectually, socially, aesthetically and ethically for lives of service and leadership.

Visit www.etown.edu for more information about Elizabethtown College.

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