Prof. Jorge González del Pozo to Hold Lectures at VMU

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On 27–31 March, Professor Dr. Jorge González del Pozo from the University of Michigan-Dearborn (USA) will be visiting the VMU Dept. of Sociology under the Erasmus+ programme and will hold public lectures.

Jorge González del Pozo is a full professor of Spanish at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, where he has worked since 2007, teaching Spanish Literature, Film, Culture, and Language. He has published work on Spanish contemporary literary criticism, Spanish film and history of Spanish film. He has published and coordinated an edited volume about Pedro Almodóvar’s films published by La Nueva Literatura Hispánica in 2013. He also has coordinated and published many edited books, such as a study on Spanish films of the 80s and a highly acclaimed panoramic compilation on foreign travelers through Castile and its representation Castilla. He is currently working on a manuscript about Spanish identity through its food and gastronomy and on an edited collection of Transatlantic Hispanic films analyzing the crossroads of home, sexuality, and politics.

At Vytautas Magnus University, the guest will hold three public lectures on 28 and 30 March. On Tuesday 28 March, 9 a.m., at VMU Multifunctional Research and Studies Centre (23 V. Putvinskio g., Room 313), Prof. Dr. Jorge González del Pozo will hold a lecture titled Pedro Almodóvar: A Unique Style as Auteur and Filmography. In his more than 40 years of career, Pedro Almodóvar has gone from enfant terrible to mogul of international film. This presentation analyzes the main characteristics of his film style as an auteur and also explores the global and commercial vision that his movies and his production company project nowadays.

On Thursday 30 March, 11.15 a.m., at VMU Faculty of Social Sciences (66 Jonavos g., Room 108), the professor will hold a lecture titled Spanish Identity Through its Food and Gastronomy. The cuisine is at the heart of the Spanish identity because, since wheat, oil, and vine, it has been present in the essence of individuals and in the soul of society. Thus, food represents the country in its versatility and constant adaptation, beyond stale and anchored approaches pushed during the pre-democratic national imaginary, demonstrating how Spanish gastronomy symbolizes a society of its time, open to incessant international influences with a global projection, that forces constantly to reflect, rethink and reimagine what Spain is through its culinary culture.

On the same day, 30 March, 5 p.m., at VMU Faculty of Social Sciences (66 Jonavos g., Room 108), the guest will also hold a lecture titled Socially Committed Film in Spain. Spanish film has a long tradition of generating socially committed films that denounce and alarm about critical issues such as prostitution, unemployment, immigration, domestic violence, class struggle, or migration, to name a few. As an industry and spectacle, cinema is a vehicle to represent national conflicts through cultural manifestations.

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