A groundbreaking researcher is the next speaker in Denison University's Laura C. Harris Symposium on "Gender and the Body." New York University Professor of Anthropology Emily Martin will speak on "Cultures of Mania: Toward an Anthropology of Mood and Motivation" at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday (March 29) in Burton Morgan Lecture Hall. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Martin will discuss the effects of gender, race, and sources of support in the emergence and treatment of depression and bipolar disorder. She asks who has the power to define "depression" and "bipolar disorder."

Marlene Tromp, director of women's studies at Denison, describes Martin's lecture as answering questions such as, "Do the definitions emerge differently for men and women, for people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds? How do doctors, support groups, and the internet compete to manage them and what does it mean, culturally and individually, to medicate people?"

Martin is the author of numerous books, includingThe Woman in the Body: A Cultural Analysis of ReproductionandFlexible Bodies: Tracking Immunity in American Culture from the Days of Polio to the Age of AIDS. She earned her doctorate at Cornell University in 1971.

Martin's visit is sponsored by the Laura C. Harris Fund, the provost's office, and the women's studies program.

The Laura C. Harris Endowed Fund provides for a Distinguished Visiting Professorship, scholarships for women in science, English, and music, and lectures at Denison. The late Laura C. Harris, who earned a bachelor's degree from Denison in 1916, was the first woman to receive a medical degree from Syracuse University and was a pioneer medical educator among women.

Calendar Listing:

CALENDAR LISTING: Denison University, Granville -- The Laura C. Harris Fund Symposium "Gender and the Body" presents professor of anthropology and author Emily Martin; 4:30 p.m., Wednesday (March 29), Burton Morgan Lecture Hall, (150 Ridge Road). Free and open to the public. Contact 740-587-6297 to confirm information.

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

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