Artist, architect and filmmaker Alfredo Jaar will deliver the keynote address for Potter College of Arts & Letters Internationalization Symposium on March 22.

In It Is Difficult, Jaar will speak about his art, which probes the impact of war, genocide, famine, economic inequality and environmental pollution around the world, and engages the peril of what it means to merely witness, but not to act. His lecture will begin at 4:15 p.m. at WKU’s Grise Hall Auditorium.

Jaar, who lives and works in New York, was born in Santiago de Chile. His work has been shown extensively around the world. He has participated in the Biennales of Venice (1986, 2007, 2009), São Paulo (1985, 1987, 2010) as well as Documenta (1987, 2002) in Kassel. His work has been exhibited at The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; Whitechapel, London; and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, as well as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome; and Moderna Museet, Stockholm. A major retrospective of his work took place this summer at three institutions in Berlin.

He recently completed two important public commissions: The Geometry of Conscience, a memorial located next to the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Santiago de Chile; and Park of the Laments, a memorial park near the Indianapolis Museum of Art. He became a Guggenheim Fellow in 1985 and a MacArthur Fellow in 2000. In 2006 he received Spain’s Premio Extremadura a la Creación.

Jaar’s keynote address will wrap up a full day of internationalization sessions and presentations.

Here is the schedule:

8:30 a.m.-9:45 a.m.: A session at the Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Center Recital Hall will feature Dare Norman, Chinese Flagship Program; Jordan Campbell, Experiencing Ghana; and Catherine Montano, Imagewest Abroad!

10 a.m.-11:15 a.m.: Dr. Marc Eagle will moderate a session on New Perspectives on Latin America in Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Center room 146. Presenters and topics are: Scarlett Marklin, Argentina’s Economy: A Mix of Past and Present Mistakes?; David LaBore, U.S. Immigration Policy Options: Costly Enforcement or Profitable Reform?; and Trip Carpenter, Indigenous Identity in Costa Rican High Schools.

10 a.m.-11:15 a.m.: Dr. Roger Murphy will moderate a session on International Politics in Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Center room 156. Presenters and topics are: Alexis Elliott, The Arab Spring in Tunisia and Egypt; Hannah Garland, Study Abroad, Soft Power, and China; and Vanessa Albright, The Tibetan Question.

1 p.m.-2:15 p.m.: Dr. Ted Hovet will moderate a session on World Cinema in Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Center room 156. Presenters and topics are: Charles Dillon Ward, The Icelandic Auteur: Runar Runarssun; Cody Burkholder, Situationist Film: Fragment, Detournement, and Slogan in the Spectacle; Nathan Gjerstad, Beyond Bergman: Scandinavian Heritage Through Film; and Dylan Jones, Oshima and the Nuberu Bagu (New Wave).

1 p.m.-2:15 p.m.: Dr. Kumi Ishii will moderate a session on Crossing Boundaries: Communication and Diversity in Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Center room 354. Presenters and topics are: Ngan Chau, How Asian Culture Influences Graduate Student- Teacher Interaction in the American Classroom; Ngan Thuy Hoang, Difficulties of Asian International Students Studying in Western Kentucky University for Three Years or Less; Naiwen Cui, More Intimate, Less Reliant: A Qualitative Study Exploring Influences of Living in the US amidst Changing Communication Patterns among International Students and Their Parents.

2:30 p.m.-3:45 p.m.: Dr. Lisa Draskovich-Long will moderate a Global Theater Pecha Kucha Session at Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Center room 156. The rapid-fire short-format presentations on Global Theater will feature Ashton Preston, J.D. Evrard, J. Morgan Shaffo, Kyle Mann and Fiona Mowbray.

4:15 p.m.-5:15 p.m.: Alfredo Jaar will present It Is Difficult at Grise Hall Auditorium.