Noted historian to speak for lecture series, film/video festival

Historian Natalie Zemon Davis will discuss "Braided Histories: Jews, Africans and Philosophes in 18th-Century Suriname" at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 11, for the President's Lecture Series.

The Distinguished Presidential Lecture in History, Davis' talk will be held in the Mills Godwin Jr. Life Sciences Building auditorium, and is free and open to the public. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Her visit is in conjunction with Old Dominion's 5th Annual Film and Video Festival. She will discuss "Can Films Tell Good History?" at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 10, in room 102 of the Godwin Building.

Davis is recognized as a pioneer in the study of women and gender, the history of Jews in early modern Europe, and Jewish studies.

A professor emeritus of Princeton and currently an adjunct professor of history and senior fellow in comparative literature and professor of medieval studies at the University of Toronto, Davis has conducted research on the social and cultural history of 16th-century France and early modern Europe, focusing on the lives and values of peasants, artisans and women to analyze their relation to other social groups, and to power, property and authority.

She has written several books, including "Society and Culture in Early Modern France," "Women on the Margins," "Three Seventeenth-Century Lives," "Slaves on Screen: Film and Historical Vision" and "The Return of Martin Guerre." Her latest project is "Braided Histories," a study of cultural mixes in the 16th, 18th and 20th centuries.

For more information about Davis' talk for the lecture series, call 683-3116. For more information about her talk for the film festival, call 683-3828.