Northwestern University in Qatar, which prepares students for careers in media, communications and journalism, has announced that distinguished children’s media scholar, Dr. Ellen A. Wartella, will present “Children, Media and the Childhood Obesity Crisis”. The lecture is free and open to the public, and will be held on Tuesday, October 11 at 5:30 p.m. in “The Forum” located on Northwestern University’s campus in the Carnegie Mellon Building in Education City.
The event is the kickoff of a new series of lectures and discussions called, “The Evanston Experience: Great Teachers from Northwestern University.” The series will enable undergraduates at the Qatar campus to engage with preeminent faculty visiting from the home campus in Evanston, Illinois.
“This new speaker series offers Northwestern students and the wider community in Doha access to the considerable intellectual capital of Northwestern University,” said Dr. Everette Dennis, dean and CEO of Northwestern University in Qatar. “By bringing leading scholars and teachers at Northwestern to our campus in Qatar, this series will augment and strengthen our students’ experience and expand their exposure to the liberal arts and related fields.”
In the first lecture of the series on Tuesday, Dr. Wartella will speak about the link between media and childhood obesity, focusing on the physical and psychological costs as well as food and beverage marketing’s contribution to this global epidemic.
Dr. Wartella is Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor of Communication, professor of Psychology, professor of Human Development and Social Policy, and director of the Center on Media and Human Development at Northwestern University. She served formerly as dean of the College of Communication at the University of Texas and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost at the University of California-Riverside.
The “Evanston Experience” series will also feature the following distinguished scholars during the 2011-2012 academic year:
- Dr. Jesus Escobar, chair of Northwestern University’s department of Art History. Dr. Escobar, who specializes in the art, architecture and urbanism of the early modern Spanish world, will lecture at NU-Q on October 26, 2011. Topic: “What We Need to Know: Why Study Architecture and The City.”
- Dr. Ronald R. Braeutigam, Kapnick Professor of Business Institutions in the Department of Economics. Dr. Braeutigam will lecture at NU-Q in the spring semester in 2012.
- Dr. Carl Petry, Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani Chair in Middle East Studies and Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence. Dr. Petry, who specializes in the Islamic world and North Africa, medieval and modern Egypt, and the social history of the Middle East, will also lead a discussion at NU-Q in the 2012 spring semester.
In November Sarah Mangelsdorf, dean of Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, will also lead a delegation of associate deans and department chairs in a special visit to the Qatar campus.
To learn more about the events at Northwestern University in Qatar, and to RSVP for Dr. Wartella’s lecture on Tuesday, October 11 please email events@qatar.northwestern.edu.
