PULLMAN, Wash. – Paul Brians, who retired as a professor of English at Washington State University in 2008, returns to Pullman Tuesday, Feb. 28, for two engagements with students and the public: a noon-1 p.m. chat about 1960s counterculture over pizza and pop in CUE 518, and a 7 p.m. lecture about how culture distorts thinking about nuclear issues in CUE 203 with a reception following. Please RSVP to relgar@wsu.edu for the noon event.
At the noon Coffee and Politics Series of the WSU Foley Institute, Brians will discuss student activism at WSU in the 1960s and its place in the wider context of that era’s counterculture movements.
Brians came to WSU in 1968 and witnessed a time when communes, demonstrations and underground publications played central roles in student lives. He participated in the movement against the Vietnam War, working with Students for a Democratic Society and other activist groups.
His evening presentation for the Common Reading Tuesdays expert lecture series is entitled “Radioactive Thinking: Nuclear Imagery and American Culture.” It will explore ways in which thinking about nuclear issues is distorted by various cultural currents, such as nuclear deterrence, nuclear terrorism, apocalyptic thinking, post-holocaust fantasy and psychological avoidance.
He will conclude with suggestions for thinking more clearly about nuclear issues.
Brians is the author of “Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction, 1894-1985,” and he edited the newsletter Nuclear Texts and Contexts.
Brians earned his Ph.D. from Indiana University-Bloomington and joined the WSU Department of English the same year. He taught WSU’s World Civilizations course; created numerous photo tours from his travels and gave several to WSU Libraries’ Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections; received the Burlington Northern Award for excellence in teaching; and has an extensive body of work involving translations, reviews and creative activities.
His books include “Modern South Asian Literature in English” and the second edition of “Common Errors in English Usage.”
Brians’ visit to WSU is co-sponsored by WSU’s Visual, Performing and Literary Arts Committee, the College of Liberal Arts, WSU Libraries, the Foley Institute, the Department of English, and the Common Reading Program in the University College.
The Common Reading Tuesdays series features faculty and other experts speaking on topics related to the common text used in many first-year classes on the Pullman campus. The 2011-12 book, “Physics for Future Presidents,” is by Richard A. Muller, who visited campus in September to present the annual invited lecture.