Pitt to Present Lecture on the Effects of Colonialism on Gender

PITTSBURGH-The University of Pittsburgh will host a lecture featuring Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, director of the Center for Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University, from 4 to 6 p.m. Nov. 30 at the Frick Fine Arts building, Schenley Drive, Oakland. The talk, titled "Three Women's Texts and a Critique of Reproductive Heteronormativity," is free and open to the public.

Formerly a Mellon Professor of English at Pitt, Spivak is best known for her work in colonial and postcolonial studies. Her lecture addresses colonialism in the context of gender and sex. She evaluates, in three texts, the implications of regulating human reproduction within heterosexual norms. According to experts, this control of women's sexuality occurs especially within cultural reproductive practices and values.

Spivak, an honors graduate from Presidency College, Calcutta, received her doctorate from Cornell University in 1967. Also a graduate of the University of Toronto and the University of London, she has published more than 15 books and many significant articles.

The talk is sponsored by boundary 2, an international journal of culture and literature. Other sponsors include Pitt's English and Spanish departments, Graduate Program in Cultural Studies, and Pitt professors Marcia Landy, Ronald Judy, and Jonathan Arac.

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11/21/06/tmw