On Oct. 11, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences Robert Fessler gave a lecture that discussed his latest research.Assistant Professor Robert Ross will be giving the next lecture, addressing his time spent in Lebanon.These are two professors part of an even broader lecture series put together by the Global Cultural Studies Program at Point Park University to teach students and faculty about the program’s on-going projects and its professors’ most recent research and accomplishments. Fessler began the lecture series and Ross is set to give the next entitled, “Waiting for Waiting (and other Strategies to Stop Gentrification): The Case of Ras Beirut,” at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 8 in the John V. Hopkins Auditorium.”It was an opportunity [for others] to get to know what we do,” Fessler said on Friday.The idea for the lecture series was conceived at a department meeting where all professors agreed to be a part of the series, according to Fessler.The most recent lecture, held on Oct. 11, titled “Why Can’t You See Things My Way?: The Psychological Dynamics Underlying the Development of Cultural Worldviews,” highlighted the work and research of Fessler and other faculty in the Department of Humanities and Human Sciences. The lecture brought about 80 students and faculty members willing to learn about the research Fessler was doing concerning the rest of the world.Ross will discuss much of his research done in the country of Lebanon and about his year in Beirut in 2007, teaching at the American University of Beirut. During his trip, he researched the relationships among the rise of luxury apartment buildings, the loss of affordable housing and the geopolitical conditions within which these processes took place. He hopes to inspire students to learn more about the world around them, and maybe take a class or two. “Research is an essential element of the work that we do.  This lecture, which presents a bit of my research, will hopefully shed light on the ways in which affordable housing can easily be lost in any city,” Ross said. “I hope students also learn a bit about the political conditions of contemporary Lebanon as well as the ways in which capitalism works in and through cities across the world.”Ian Sulkowski, a junior global cultural studies major, had Ross for Political Geography of the Middle East class, is attending the lecture to hear more about the research Ross did abroad.”The research he is doing is very timely and increasingly relative,” Sulkowski said in a telephone interview on Monday.Fessler expressed that more students have begun showing interest in the cultures and current events of other countries in the world. By looking at high school geography testing, he said, it is easy to point out that students are not learning nearly enough about the rest of the globe.”A lot students have managed to get through elementary school and high school with not a great understanding of other regions of the world,” Fessler said.With this series, the faculty in the program hopes to develop a better understanding of the globe in general.”Next year, we hope to expand the series to people from outside the school and talking about other global issues,” Fessler said.They are considering continuing the series next year with a set theme and by bringing in speakers from abroad to educate students on different views on a topic picked by all professors in the program.On Feb. 14 of next year, Assistant Professor Dwight Hines will be giving his lecture, ” The Anthropology of Modernity: The Colonization of Consciousness of Colonization.” On March 13, Professor of French and cultural studies coordinator of the modern languages of the humanities will be giving her lecture, “The Genealogy of the Honors Movement in American Higher Education.”Sulkowski is very enthusiastic about the lecture series as a whole. He believes all the professors “have a great deal of knowledge” to share with others.”I think all of it is relevant information,” Sulkowski said. “We are living in a globalized society. Because of that I think it more and more essential to have an understanding of the global market.”