The Global Arts Studies Program (GASP) at UC Merced will present a series of lectures to connect the Merced community with the research and artistic activities taking place on campus.
Music Professor Jayson Beaster-Jones, who organized the series, will give the first talk on Sunday, Oct. 2. Each of the lectures, which are free and open to the public, will begin at 3 p.m. in the Black Box Theater at the Merced Multicultural Arts Center at 645 W. Main St.
Each of the Sunday afternoon events will feature a UC Merced arts researcher.
“We see this as an opportunity to provide the general public with a sense of what we do as a faculty at UC Merced and how our research informs our teaching practice and involvement in the community,” Beaster-Jones said. “UC Merced is a public university, and we see this kind of event as an important component of our service to the community.”
The series will introduce the community to the research and teaching offered through UC Merced’s new GASP major.
“Many local students feel they have to leave Merced in order to pursue degrees in the arts,” Beaster-Jones said. “We want to provide them with an opportunity to experience what they can do locally through the Global Arts Studies Program.”
The entire schedule of lectures is as follows:
- Oct. 2: Jayson Beaster-Jones (ethnomusicology, Bollywood, India)
- Nov. 6: Chris Peck (composition, electronic music)
- Dec. 4: Emily Gale (musicology, early 20th-century American music)
- Jan. 15: Richard Gomez (painting, Chicano art)
- Feb. 12: Ken Yoshida (art history, post-war Japan)
- March 12: Jenni Samuelson (opera, American musicals)
- April 9: Maria DePrano (women in Renaissance art)
- May 7: Stephen Mandiberg (media studies, game studies)
For information, contact Jayson Beaster-Jones at jbeaster-jones@ucmerced.edu.
