PSU hosts lectures on gaming, glaciers and gratification

PLYMOUTH — Plymouth State University will continue the second half of its Saul O. Sidore Lecture Series this month. This season’s lectures explore how curiosity and creativity feed passions for life.

Anne Ladyem McDivitt of Stanford University will present her lecture, “Life is an RPG: Incorporating Video Games and Fun into Academia,” via Zoom at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 27. The talk will also be projected live at PSU Memorial Hall Room 103 for an on-campus viewing and Q&A.

McDivitt will discuss that gaming is fun and encourages experimentation and creativity as well as how she incorporates video games into her professional life. She will share tips on how one could incorporate their own passions and interests into their professional careers.

McDivitt is an academic technology specialist for the department of history at Stanford. She is also a member of the Center for Interdisciplinary Digital Research. In 2020, McDivitt published her monograph, “Hot Tubs and Pac-Man: Gender and the Early Video Game Industry in the United States.” She hosts two weekly podcasts, including one that discusses video games, anime and manga, and hosts a Twitch channel, on which she plays various fishing video games.

Richard Alley of Pennsylvania State University will present his lecture, “Living Curious: Time Machines, Time Bombs, and Time for Fun,” at PSU Smith Recital Hall at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 5.

Alley will share his experiences traveling the world, drilling into ice sheets and watching mile-high blocks of ice fall from glaciers. He will discuss his work studying the history of the earth’s climate as it relates to the present-day climate change and sea levels and the fun he has along the way.

Alley is an Evan Pugh University Professor of Geoscience at Penn State. He has made several trips to advance his studies of the great ice sheets around the world, to places like Greenland, Antarctica, and Alaska. Alley has been honored by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and The Royal Society. He has participated in the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and was a co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to that panel. Alley also regularly shares his knowledge and expertise with high-ranking government officials. He has authored and coauthored over 400 scholarly publications.

For more information, visit plymouth.edu/campus-life/events/saul-o-sidore-lecture-series.