Black and White: Author Discusses TV's Role in Developing Racial Cultural History in Lawrence University Address

APPLETON, WIS. -- Award-winning author and poet Alan Nadel will conduct a poetry reading and give a lecture on the cultural history of television in a visit to Lawrence University.

Nadel, professor of language, literature and communication at New York's Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, will read excepts of his poetry Tuesday, April 10 at 7 p.m. in the Riverview Lounge of the Lawrence Memorial Union.

On Wednesday, April 11, Nadel will deliver the Main Hall Forum, "The Film 'The Fugitive,' the Fugitive Slave and Rodney King," at 4:15 p.m. in Main Hall, Room 202. Both events are free and open to the public.

Nadel's lecture will be based on his latest book -- "Reinventing America in Black and-White: Cold War Television and the Legacy of Racial Profiling" -- in which he traces the development of several popular notions of America, especially in regard to race. Nadel asserts television was constructed as a medium that would provide the American consciousness access to an unmediated "reality" and reinforce an American dream grounded in the presumption of visual homogeneity.

Nadel has written four other books, including 1997's "Flatlining on the Field of Dreams: Cultural Narratives in the Films of President Reagan's America." His poetry has been published in such journals as Paris Review and Partisan Review.

A member of the RPI faculty since 1989, he earned his Ph.D. at Rutgers University.