Kinder Delivers Emmett Lecture

John M. Kinder, doctoral candidate in the American Studies Program at the University of Minnesota, delivered the Twelfth Annual Victor J. Emmett, Jr., Memorial Lecture on Thursday, September 15, at 8:00 p.m. to an audience of approximately sixty students, faculty, and community members. Mr. Kinder's lecture topic was "'What's Wrong with This Picture?' The Wounded Soldier and the Horrors of Modern War." A reception followed the lecture.

Kinder also conducted a discussion of media images of the Vietnam War in Dr. John Daly's class on the history of the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. He also surveyed media images of American wars, from the Civil War to Vietnam, in Professor Joey Pogue's class on critiquing the media.

The honor of delivering the Emmett Memorial Lecture goes to the author of the best essay on a literary topic published each year in The Midwest Quarterly. Mr. Kinder's winning essay was "The Good War's 'Raw Chunks': Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead and James Gould Cozzens' Guard of Honor," which appeared in the January 2005 issue.

The Emmett Memorial Award is sponsored by the Emmett family, The Midwest Quarterly, and the English Department of Pittsburg State. The award is given in memory of the late Dr. Victor J. Emmett, Jr., who, before his death in 1990, was for twenty-three years a Professor of English at Pittsburg State, where he served at various times as Chairperson of the English Department, Acting Dean of Graduate Studies, and Editor-in-Chief of The Midwest Quarterly.