Race and American culture is subject of lecture at University of Richmond

September 8, 2008

Eric Lott, an award-winning author of books and essays on racial issues in America, will speak on "Spirit of the Ghetto: Cinema Space and Specters of Race" at the University of Richmond Sept. 22.

Lott will speak at 4 p.m. in Weinstein Hall's Brown-Alley Room. The talk is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Department of English.

A professor of American studies at the University of Virginia, Lott will reference the "Candyman" films of the 1990s, particularly the first, set in Chicago, that focuses on city space and race.

Lott is author of "Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class," which won numerous awards including the 1994 Avery O. Craven Award from the Organization of American Historians and the first Modern Language Association's "Best First Book" prize. His essays have appeared in numerous journals. His new book project is "Tangled Up in Blue: The Cultural Contradictions of American Racism."

For more information, call (804) 289-8287.