The Denison Goodspeed Lecture Series is sponsoring a lecture by Margaret Mills, professor in the department of Near East languages and cultures at Ohio State University. Mills will discuss "Leadership, Gender and Islam: Development in Afghanistan" at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday (April 20) in Burton Morgan lecture hall. Her presentation is free and open to the public.

"Margaret has just returned from research in Tajikistan and has conducted many years of field research in Afghanistan," says Professor Bahram Tavakolian of Denison's sociology and anthropology department. "She is a top authority in the U.S. on folklore and oral tradition in Afghanistan and a foremost specialist on gender and social change."

Mills earned her bachelor's degree at Radcliffe College and her doctorate at Harvard University. Widely regarded as a leading specialist in the popular culture of the Persian and Farsi-speaking world, her book, "Rhetorics and Politics in Afghan Traditional Storytelling," won the 1993 Chicago Folklore Prize for best academic work in folklore. She has written or co-edited four additional books. Mills also has served as chair of the Ohio State Near East department and as chair of the department of folklore and folklife at the University of Pennsylvania prior to joining Ohio State's faculty in 1998.

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.

For press inquiries:

Name

Barbara Stambaugh

Position Title

Director, Media Relations

Primary Email

stambaughb@denison.edu

Business Phone

(740) 587-8575