Humorist's address given in honor of late faculty member Nancy A. Walker

Noted humorist Regina Barreca will bring her unique take on everyday life to Vanderbilt April 4, when she kicks off a two-day examination of humor.

The author of several books, including They Used to Call Me Snow White, But I Drifted, Barreca will speak at 7 p.m in Wilson Hall. Her address, "Courage and Subversion: Humor, Women and Power," is being given in memory of Nancy A. Walker, a Vanderbilt English professor and first director of the University's Women's Studies Program, who died in December 2000.

Barecca, professor of English literature and feminist theory at the University of Connecticut, has been praised for spanning the divide between ivory tower scholarship and popular culture. She has appeared on scores of radio and television programs, including 20/20, 48 Hours, the Today show and the Oprah Winfrey Show.

The examination of humor will continue April 5 at the University Club when four members of the Vanderbilt faculty will give their perspectives beginning at 8:30 a.m. with "A Free Ham: The Jewish Dilemma and Ethnic Humor" by Professor of English Sam Girgus. He will be followed at 9:30 a.m. by Kathy Gaca, professor of classical studies, and "Cartoons for Teaching"; at 10:45 a.m. by Elizabeth Barnes, professor of English, and "The Menace of Mudholes: Environmentalist Humor in Caroline Kirkland's Frontier Fiction"; and at 11:45 a.m. by Barbara Bowen, professor of French and Italian, and "Have Shell, Will Travel: Venus Sails On."

"We are pleased to honor the memory of our colleague Nancy Walker with this exciting program," said Mona Frederick, executive director of the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, a co-sponsor of the event. "Nancy authored more than 10 books on women's literature and women's humor. She understood, both through her academic pursuits and her personal life, the central role that humor plays in helping us all to better understand what it means to be human."

Barreca, with whom Walker co-edited the book series "Humor and Gender," has written and edited a diverse collection of works devoted to feminist explorations of women's humor, gender difference, romance and the mass media. Her books include Too Much of a Good Thing is Wonderful, Perfect Husbands (and Other Fairy Tales) and Sweet Revenge: The Wicked Delights of Getting Even. She has also edited the Penguin Book of Women's Humor.

She contributes essays to the Hartford Courant and the Chicago Tribune based on incidents from her daily life and illustrating her observation that "while life is no joke, it is nevertheless remarkably funny." She also is regularly featured in the Washington Post column "Below the Beltway."

Both Barreca's presentation and the remarks Friday are free and open to the public. For the Friday sessions, however, seating at the University Club is limited; reservations may be made by e-mail at rpw.center@vanderbilt.
edu, or by calling the Humanities Center at 322- 7311.

Other co-sponsors of the Nancy A. Walker Memorial Lecture and Symposium are the Vanderbilt Department of English and the Women's Studies Program.