News Release

Author, NPR Commentator to Speak at Ohio Wesleyan University
Andrei Codrescu to Discuss ‘What is an Immigrant?’ as Part of Sagan National Colloquium

October 23, 2009

Andrei Codrescu

Photo courtesy of Andrei Codrescu

As part of Ohio Wesleyan’s Sagan National Colloquium, Codrescu will discuss “What is an Immigrant, What Makes an American?” at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 3 in the Benes Rooms of Hamilton-Williams Campus Center, 40 Rowland Ave. His presentation, which is free and open to the public, also will be streamed online at stream.owu.edu/broadcasts/lecturesEvents/091103_sagan.html.

Codrescu, who became a U.S. citizen in 1981, is the author of more than 40 books, including 2009’s “The Posthuman Dada Guide: Tzara & Lenin Play Chess.” This work has been hailed by The Los Angeles Times as “a postmodern self-help manual, a history lesson, a love letter to dissident poets, a hard jab at communism and a veiled autobiography.” In addition, The New Orleans Times-Picayune says Codrescu’s book is “a call to remember humanity in a post-human time, and an incitement. To read it is to light a mental fuse.”

Each year, Ohio Wesleyan’s Sagan National Colloquium spotlights an issue of global significance. This year’s theme is “Renewing America for a Global Century: From Theory to Practice at Ohio Wesleyan University.” The speaker series will conclude Nov. 10, when Bonnie Honig, the Sarah Rebecca Roland Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University and a research professor at the American Bar Foundation, discusses “Walt Whitman and the (Im)possibility of Renewal.” Honig also will speak at 7:30 p.m. in the Benes Rooms of Hamilton-Williams Campus Center.

During spring semester, Ohio Wesleyan students will draw upon the knowledge shared by this year’s Sagan National Colloquium speakers as they work to translate theory into practice in several new classes.

“Six OWU faculty members having expertise in four major divisions of our liberal arts curriculum will teach these courses, all of which have substantial interactive as well as off-campus experiences and which focus in science, social sciences, humanities-classics, the arts, and an interdisciplinary area,” said Sean Kay, Ph.D., coordinator of this year’s Sagan National Colloquium, a professor in the Department of Politics and Government, and coordinator of the International Studies Program.

In addition to being part of the Sagan National Colloquium, Codrescu’s Nov. 3 lecture also is the university’s 2009‐2010 John Kennard Eddy Lecture on World Politics. This lecture series honors the life of Ohio Wesleyan student “Jeff” Eddy, killed in an automobile accident in 1988.

Ohio Wesleyan University is an undergraduate liberal arts college that transforms the lives of its students through a combination of rigorous academics, mentoring relationships, and real-world experiences. Featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” the private university’s 1,850 students come from 45 states and 57 countries. Visit www.owu.edu for more information.