As part of its yearlong theme on “Comedy,” the Great Works Symposium (GWS) is proud to present Negin Farsad. Named one of the 50 funniest women by The Huffington Post, Farsad is a comedian, writer, actress, filmmaker, and TED Fellow who specializes in “social justice comedy.” During her talk and the following conversation, she will discuss how humor can be used as a force for good, and how comedy has become a voice for cultural criticism. Learn more about Negin Farsard and her work at http://www.neginfarsad.com/

This event is cosponsored by the Division of Enrollment Management and Student Success and the Student Center for Inclusion and Culture. Additional support given by the Lindy Center for Civic Engagement and the Drexel University Muslim Student Association. 

For the 2015-2016 academic year, the GWS will focus on “Comedy” in its historical, cultural, and scientific contexts. Drawing on the expertise of scholars from a wide range of disciplines and performers (both active and retired), students will explore how comedy is situated at in the boundary areas between cultural groups, social generations; and racial, national, gender and many other categories. Comedy is for some a science, thus methods from psychology, sociology, anthropology and when viable the ‘hard sciences’ will be employed to study it. Since performance is central to comedy, it will be so throughout the year’s courses.