Symposium at YSU to focus on role of cars in our culture

The event will explore the American love affair with the automobile.

YOUNGSTOWN — More than 200 car enthusiasts and experts from across the nation are expected to come to Youngstown State University on April 25 and 26 for a symposium on the automobile.

“The Automobile in Our Culture” will explore the past, present and future of America’s love affair with the automobile.

The symposium is part of YSU’s Centennial Celebration.

“The enthusiasm for the automobile in the Youngstown area is generally unrecognized and this symposium attempts to remedy that,” said Craig Campbell, professor and chair of YSU’s geography department and the lead organizer for the event.

The symposium features national, regional and local speakers and scholars on a variety of topics, including the influence of GM Lordstown on the Mahoning Valley, the story of the Avanti, recollections on the Wick Six, a focus on independent makes such as Packard, Studebaker and AMC, hot roddin’ and much more.

Martin Apfel, executive director of global manufacturing and planning for General Motors and former director of GM Opel Division Eisenach and Bochum plants, will give the keynote address.

Special presenters include Dutch Mandel, editor of AutoWeek magazine; John Biel, editor of Collectible Automobile magazine; and Henry Payne, columnist and cartoonist for the Detroit News.

Keynote speakers include geographer James M. Rubenstein of Miami University of Ohio, author of Making and Selling Cars and The Changing U.S. Automobile Industry, and sociologist David Gartman of the University of South Alabama, author of Auto Slavery: The Labor Process in the American Auto Industry and Auto Opium: A Social History of American Automobile Design.

On April 25, participants can tour the GM Lordstown plant where the Chevy Cobalt and Pontiac G5 are manufactured, and the National Packard Museum in Warren, the birthplace of the Packard automobile.

A Classic Car show is planned for April 26 on the inner campus core, featuring as many as 40 cars spanning the decades.

For a conference brochure and registration material, contact Susan Russo at scrusso@ysu.edu or (330) 941-3626.