Annual lecture to reshape students’ world perceptions

Vijay Prashad

Every year, University of Toledo students have the opportunity to engage with contemporary scholars.

On Wednesday, Nov. 5, the department of English Language and Literature will host the 25th annual Richard M. Summers Lecture in Libbey Hall from 5- 6:15 p.m. featuring author Vijay Prashad.

The event is free and open to the public. There will also be a reception and a book signing to follow.

“We’re not 100 percent sure what he is going to talk about, but our understanding is, from the title that he gave us, ‘Letter From a Wound: The World We Live In Today,’ is that he is going to address some temporary happenings in the world around us, and then help us think through why it is important for students to be engaged in the world around them, open up their horizons a little bit, and be more aware as global citizens,” said Parama Sarkar, an assistant professor in the department of English Language and Literature.

Sarkar said students will benefit in listening to Prashad’s ideas because it will enhance the reading of literary texts.

“My assumption is that people in history, sociology, political science, international studies, even the law students, who have any interest whatsoever in contemporary politics and contemporary social situation would benefit tremendously,” Sarkar said.

Professors in the English department feel that the speaker will impact students.

“I think Dr. Prashad is a very interesting choice for this series, quite different from many of our previous speakers. His work speaks to widely-debated issues, rather than being of primarily scholarly interest, and he is at a very dynamic stage of his career,” said Andrew Mattison, a professor and associate chair of the English department, in an email interview.

According to Mattison, the English department has been working to bring in younger scholars to speak at the Summers Lectures in order to better relate to students.

Mattison said Prashad is primarily a historian, which is new for the lecture considering that past speakers have had associations with English literature and language.

“Dr. Prashad’s work is devoted to the conflicts and imbalances that the less affluent parts of the world are subject to,” Mattison said. “As we work to broaden the curriculum to include more contemporary, global literature, that context is extremely important for understanding the experiences of writers and readers outside of the Anglo-American milieu that governed our courses a generation ago.”

Prashad is an author of over 15 books, as well as a social historian, and a professor of international studies at Trinity College in Connecticut.

“He’s very well-versed in international politics, issues of race, class, gender and often what a lot of my colleagues and me teach in our classes, it is a lot of reading the texts, but also understanding the contexts within which the literature is produced,” Sarkar said.

Sarkar said the Summers Lecture comes from an endowed fund.

“We have featured very well-known speakers, Sarkar, “we are just continuing that trajectory by bringing someone that we think would be very influential in shaping how our students think.”