This year marks the 100-year anniversary of the outbreak of World War I hostilities, a vicious conflict that forever changed how violence is waged on the battlefield.

On Thursday, Sept. 18, Yale University professor Jay M. Winter will visit Old Dominion University to discuss, in a public lecture, questions regarding commemorations of the "Great War."

"Commemorating Catastrophe: The Great War 100 Years On" is being presented by the ODU Department of History at 7 p.m. in room 1012 of the Batten Arts and Letters building on ODU's main Norfolk campus. Winter's lecture will focus on the questions: What should we commemorate? Where should we commemorate? Why should we commemorate?

The event is free and open to the public.

Winter is the Charles J. Stille Professor of History at Yale University and has written extensively on World War I topics, including its impact on the 20th century. Winter's books include: "Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History, 1914-1918," and "The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century."

Further details about Jay M. Winter can be found on his Yale University biography page.

For more information on the ODU lecture, contact program administrator Kelly Duggins at kduggins@odu.edu or the Department of History at 757-683-3949.