Date: April 15, 2009
Contact: Carol Connelly, Director, Media & Communication Services, ext. 5267, cconnelly@pnc.edu

PNC Hosts Talk on Changes Occurring in Venezuela

Westville – Purdue University North Central will host a talk by Dr. Greg Wilpert, an American sociologist and former US Fulbright Scholar living in Caracas , Venezuela , on Wednesday, April 29, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:50 p.m. in the Library-Student-Faculty Building Assembly Hall, Room 02. This event is free and open to the public.

Wilpert is a founder and editor of Venezuelanalysis.com, an English-language web site that is considered to be the single-best English-language source for information on changes currently taking place in Venezuela . He is

the author of “Changing Venezuela by Taking Power,” which was published by Verso Press in 2007. His book has been called one of the most astute written to date on the changes taking place in Venezuela under its charismatic but controversial president, Hugo Chavez. He is intimately knowledgeable about the changes taking place in the country, and will not hesitate to question Chavez' efforts when necessary.

Wilpert will speak to the U.S. media treatment of Chavez and provide up-to-date analysis of what is taking place there. Venezuela has been called "the most exciting place" in the Hemisphere by some.

Dr. Kim Scipes, PNC assistant professor of Sociology, visited Venezuela in June 2006 with PNC students Chris Overbey and Nicole Miller and came away impressed with the social changes taking place that are benefitting the bottom 80 percent of the population. For example, Scipes was told that by 2006 the government had built more than 8,400 health clinics in both urban and rural barrios around the country, where trained health care workers were available 24 hours a day, at no cost to the patient or their family.

Scipes has worked with Dr. Kenneth Kincaid, PNC assistant professor of History, to bring Wilpert to campus. Scipes said, "This is an opportunity to hear a first-hand report from one of the most knowledgeable people around who is independent of the government and the opposition. We hope people from Northwest Indiana will take advantage of this and come to the talk."

Wilpert's talk at PNC is part of a tour of the Upper Midwest . He will speak in Fort Wayne and at Purdue Calumet in Hammond , as well the University of Wisconsin and Edgewood College in Madison, Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. , and the University of Chicago .

Further information may be obtained by contacting Scipes at 219-785-5200, ext. 5294 or kscipes@pnc.edu Persons with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Scipes.

 

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