(Posted April 11, 2001)

James Roney, professor of Russian at Juniata College, will lecture on the work of Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska as part of Juniata's Bookend Seminar lecture series as part of the Bookend Seminar series at 4:30 p.m., April 25 in 202 Good Hall on the Juniata campus.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

The lecture, "Szymborska's Naive Questions: Faith, Humor, Holocaust and the Nobel Prize for Poetry," discusses the poet's simple, conversational poetic style and how her work was influenced by events such as the Holocaust.

Roney's talk will focus on conversation about a small group of Szymborska's poems. He says attendees do not need to know Szymborska's poetry or Polish history to take part in the lecture.

Roney earned a bachelor's degree in Russian language and literature from Dartmouth College in 1973. He earned a master's degree in 1975 and a doctoral degree in 1981, both from Ohio State University.

Roney joined the Juniata faculty in 1988. He received the Beachley Award for Distinguished Academic Service in 1993.

He worked as a graduate teaching assistant at Ohio State and worked as an assistant professor of Russian at the University of Kentucky from 1983 to 1984 and as an assistant professor of Russian at the University of New Hampshire from 1984 to 1988.

He has studied overseas in Poland and the former Soviet Union under grants from the American Council of Learned Societies and the International Research and Exchange Board.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.