ISSUED: 12 February 2014
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Dr. Chad Loewen-Schmidt, assistant professor of English at Shepherd University, will present his talk “The Politics of Pity in Eighteenth-Century Fiction” Wednesday, February 26 at noon in the Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies auditorium.
The eighteenth century witnessed an unprecedented enthusiasm for pity. Loewen-Schmidt will examine the evolution of attitudes toward human suffering in Western Europe before, during, and after the Enlightenment into the present through an analysis of the shifting social, cultural, and political roles of pity, compassion, and sympathy in literary and philosophical history.
Loewen-Schmidt earned his Ph.D at Rutgers University.
The Faculty Research Forum is a monthly lecture series implemented by the faculty and designed to highlight the current scholarship of Shepherd University faculty members. Presentations are drawn from across the campus community and are presented free of charge to faculty, staff, students, andmembers of the community. The purposes of the Faculty Research Forum are to bring together committed scholars from all disciplines, to highlight the scholarly accomplishments of Shepherd University faculty, to encourage collaborative relationships both within and across academic disciplines, and to contribute to the spirit of research and inquiry that defines what it means to be an institution of higher education.
For more information go to www.shepherd.edu/aaweb/frf/.
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