CLARION, Pa. (EYT) — Clarion University’s 2017 Seifert Cultural Series, “United States of Gender,” will continue at 7:00 p.m., on Wednesday, April 19 in Hart Chapel with guest speaker Alison Bechdel.
Bechdel is an artist and author of work including her comic strip “Dykes to Watch Out For” and Time Magazine’s Best Book of 2006 award winner “Fun Home,” which was turned into a Tony Award winning Broadway show in 2015.
In 2006 Alison published “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic.”
Time magazine named it the Best Book of 2006, describing the tightly architected investigation into her closeted bisexual father’s suicide “a masterpiece about two people who live in the same house but different worlds, and their mysterious debts to each other.”
“Fun Home” was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award. The musical adaptation of the book has won five Tony Awards, including “Best Musical.”
In her work, Bechdel is preoccupied with the overlap of the political and the personal spheres, the relationship of the self to the world outside. Her 2012 memoir, “Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama,” delved into not just her relationship with her own mother, but theories of 20th century British psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott.
Through her work, Bechdel “plays a leading role in our thinking about gender,” said Philip Terman, English professor, a member of the Seifert Series Committee.
“Because of Alison’s success as a writer/artist and spokesperson for gender issues, and her reputation for connecting with student communities, we thought she would be an ideal figure to bring to campus,” Terman said. “Through Bechdel’s presentation, we hope that attendees will gain a greater awareness of how gender operates in our culture, as well as gain further understanding of the importance of art, writing and self-expression in a culture which sometimes undervalues these important activities.”
The event is free and open to the public.
Seating is limited and is first-come, first served.
For more information, visit www.clarion.edu/seifertseries.
