Symposium Unites Exiles, Scholars and Artists

The Kahn Liberal Arts Institute of Smith College will host a two-and-a-half day symposium on exile and alienation on December 7-9, 2000. The meeting, "Forced Out: The Meaning of Home," is part of a year-long project on "The Anatomy of Exile," organized by Sophia Smith Professor of Sociology and Anthropology Peter I. Rose.

Scholars in the humanities and social sciences from Europe and the United States will gather to consider three themes: visions and journeys of exile, expressions of exile in literature and the effects of exile on those forced to flee and on succeeding generations.

Among the speakers will be literature professor Orm Øverland of the University of Bergen, Norway, sociologist Ingrid Sommerkorn of the University of Hamburg, Germany, and faculty and student fellows of the Kahn Institute.

The symposium will begin at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, December 7, with a reception honoring the artist, Judith Peck, whose sculpture, "The Refugees," will be installed outside the Kahn Institute office on the third floor of Neilson Library.

At 8 p.m., Cuban-born sociologist Rubén G. Rumbaut, a specialist on American refugee and immigrant policies, will present his own -- and his psychiatrist father Rubén D. Rumbaut's -- personal and professional reflections in a presentation, "Self and Circumstance."

Panel discussions will continue on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.

On Friday evening there will be a special program on "Loss and Recovery," featuring a presentation by Cambodian-American Arn Chorn Pond and others.

All presentations will be held in the Neilson Library Browsing Room, unless otherwise announced.

The events are free, open to the public and wheelchair-accessible.

For more information about the Kahn Institute or upcoming events of "The Anatomy of Exile" project, call (413) 585-3721.

Additional information can also be found at http:\\www.smith.edu/kahninstitute.

November 21, 2000