It's a bird, it's a plane, no it's Arie Kaplan!

The Jewish Studies program in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences' Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures will host a series of events with award-winning author and public speaker, Arie Kaplan.

Events Monday, April 17, include a cartooning workshop for middle school students at the Fayetteville Public Library and the lecture "Liberal Arts Education and Writing for Comics and Video Games" at 7 p.m. in KIMP 102.

This talk will center on Kaplan's work and career and how he creates stories and screenplays for comics. It is free and open to the public. 

Kaplan will give a second lecture, "Jews and the History of Comic books in America," 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 18, in GEAR 26. He will be speaking about his book, From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books, as well as his personal journey in writing it. This event is also free and open to the public. 

As a writer and cartoonist specializing in historical fiction and video games, Kaplan has a career in which he makes practical use of a liberal arts education. Much of what he writes focuses on the history of diversity and ethical choice making.

In his book From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books, he writes about the history of the comic book industry in America, explores its Jewish roots, and discusses where different Jewish ideas appear in various comic book heroes and story arcs from the 1930s to the present day.

"Arie Kaplan is a great storyteller and a trove of pop culture knowledge. Moreover, he can talk to you about how thinking about the life of a Storm Trooper in the Star Wars universe can encourage you to think about your own life choices; he can talk to you about Arkansas regional history; he can talk to you about how pirate societies are a bedrock of democratic ideas; he can talk to you about the value of kids learning to create gag cartoons; he can talk to you about how his own life and family history connects him to comic books as well as cataclysmic events in history. He is a great voice for the 21st century," said Jennifer Hoyer, associate professor of German and director of the Jewish Studies Program.

Each semester, the Jewish Studies program brings speakers to campus who can illuminate different aspects of Jewish histories and cultures and talk about how they connect to our everyday lives. The program brings a diverse array of speakers who are involved in many different disciplines to show how Jewish Studies connects to so many other areas of study, and that Jewish culture and thought are very much a part of American life, culture and history.

"We thought U of A students would be very interested to hear someone talk from a practical standpoint about the value and application of humanities," Hoyer said. "With the game design work professor Dave Fredrick is doing with students in the Tesseract lab here at U of A, and broad interest in comic books and superheroes, this seemed like the perfect time for Mr. Kaplan to visit."

Upcoming Jewish Studies events include a Holocaust speaker during the fall semester. Additionally, the program has two upcoming courses: The Holy Land in Jewish Thought (HUMN 425V) during Summer Session II and Intro to Judaism (JWST 2003), offered in fall.