A performance of “Songs for Eternity,” by Ute Lemper, is this weekend at Texas Tech University. Dr. Alec Cattell joins the Front Row to share more about the event.
Tell us about you and what you do here at Texas Tech.
I’m an assistant professor of practice in classical and modern languages, and literatures. My area is in German, but I also teach courses in the humanities and language and cultures more generally.
Where did you grow up and go to school?
I grew up in Pennsylvania and then went to university in Canada. I spent some time in Germany and then went back to Canada. Then, I came down here to Lubbock.
Tell us a little bit about what the Department of Global Communications has to do with this upcoming event.
For the past two years, I’ve been leading a special project called “Identity and Resistance in Global Contexts.” Our activities are funded by the Texas Tech Center for Global Communication, and the goal of what we’re doing in this project is to better prepare undergraduate students at Tech to communicate affectively in a global society.
A total of eight faculty are implementing this project in the courses that they teach. And our main project deliverable is the creation of a digital archive that contains students’ projects that analyze human conflicts from multiple angles and in different contexts. So, things like language, culture, architecture, media and music.
Another aspect of it that connects with this concert is that we’re trying to bring individuals to Lubbock whose work takes up the themes of human conflict and identity through music and so that’s why we’ve invited Ute Lemper to come perform “Songs for Eternity” on the 26th.
Listen to the full interview at the top of the article.
