Rachel Schreiber, director of the Masters in Digital Arts program at the Maryland Institute College of Art, will discuss her works in the fields of digital media, history and writing during a presentation at 2:30 today.

She will be speaking in the Palmer Lipcon Auditorium, located in the Palmer Museum of Art.

Her lecture is a part of the Penn State School of Visual Arts Lecture Series. Based on what Schreiber calls "the intersection of writing and visual images," her work often relies on the combination of a variety of media to produce art.

"I hope it will inherently challenge more traditional approaches to the art object," Schreiber said.

A major focus of Schreiber's work has been the history of Jewish women and the representation of the Holocaust in American culture. Her project, Anne in New York, utilizes a series of images of Anne Frank to explore the iconic status of the famous Holocaust victim in modern American society.

"My work has begun to focus on the history of Jewish immigrant women involved in labor activism," Schreiber said.

During today's lecture, Schreiber will exhibit various projects including digital and photographic images, a Web-based art project and other samples of her work.

Coordinator for the John M. Anderson Endowment for Visiting Artists and Scholars Series, Ann Shostrom, arranged for Schreiber's appearance at University Park. Shostrom explained that Schreiber's lecture would be a great opportunity for visual arts students.

"Our students are increasingly interested in making use of digital technologies for their art work," Shostrom said.

Schreiber has been published and exhibited internationally, producing artistic and historical work that hold, as Shostrom called, "social and political relevance." She uses historical investigation to provide further insight into her art works. In her essay, "Seized Images: Photography, Memory and the Holocaust," she describes the importance of visual media as a teaching tool of social history. She writes, "Images of the past only become recognizable, somewhat uncannily so, through their relations to the present moment."

Teaching in Maryland since 1999, Schreiber received her Masters of Fine Arts in photography and critical writing from the California Institute of the Arts and participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York City. She is currently working on her doctorate in history at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

While the lecture series is completely funded and arranged through the School of Visual Arts, the Palmer Museum is an integral part of these presentations.

Robin Seymour, coordinator of membership and public relations for the museum, spoke highly of the series.

"It's been very successful in putting together a good program and a good line of speakers," Seymour said. "The lecture series is a good opportunity for students and professors."