Media Contacts:
Randy Mitchell, education and career planning director, (509) 682-6858
Libby Siebens, community relations executive director, (509) 682-6436 (Mon. – Thurs.)

March 27, 2017

Wenatchee Valley College faculty members Dustin Clark and Derek Sheffield will discuss “People and Walls in Poetry and History” at the next WVC Speaks Lecture Series on Thursday, April 13, at 2 p.m. in Wenatchi Hall 2105 and in Omak campus room 901 via ITV

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Since the dawn of sedentary farming and village life, humans have been creating walls. On the surface, the reasons for these walls are self-evident – security and protection. But what happens when states and empires create walls? Are these walls still about security and protection? Or do these walls tell us something else about the societies and civilizations that created them? By examining two modern poems—“Mending Wall” by Robert Frost and “Bilingual/Bilingüe” by Rhina Espaillat—in the context of three of history’s most famous walls—Hadrian’s Wall, The Great Wall of China, and the Berlin Wall—we can learn much about the role that walls have played in identity and politics.

Dustin Clark is a WVC History professor. He specializes in European and Mediterranean history with an emphasis on the history of religion. He also has a strong interest Chinese history. He is the co-author of Washington: A State of Contrasts, second edition, a textbook for grades 7-12.

Derek Sheffield is a professor of English at WVC. Sheffield’s primary academic pursuits are poetry and ecological writing. His book of poems, Through the Second Skin (Orchises, 2013), was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. Since 2013, he has been the poetry editor of the place-based literary magazine, Terrain.org. He lives with his family in the foothills of the Cascades near Leavenworth.

Daily parking passes on the Wenatchee campus cost $2. Parking permit machines are available in the Wells Hall/Music and Art Center, Smith Gym, Brown Library and Sexton Hall lots. Students must have valid WVC parking permits.

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 Wenatchee Valley College enriches North Central Washington by serving educational and cultural needs of communities and residents throughout the service area. The college provides high-quality transfer, liberal arts, professional/technical, basic skills and continuing education for students of diverse ethnic and economic backgrounds. Visit our website at www.wvc.edu.