MEDIA RELEASES

As part of its month-long celebration of Black History Month, Dominican University will present a lecture by Loyola University Chicago Professor Ayana Karanja titled “Invoking Metaphors: Race and Gender in Contemporary American Politics” on Thursday, February 21 from 2:20 to 3:30 p.m. The lecture will be presented in Eloise Martin Recital Hall, Fine Arts Building, 7900 W. Division Street, River Forest.

Karanja is a professor of anthropology and director of the Black World Studies Department at Loyola University Chicago. She holds a doctoral degree in cultural anthropology and African literature from Union University and Institute and a master’s degree in anthropology/social science from the University of Chicago.

With interests in humanistic and cognitive anthropology, including film and comparative literary analysis, religion and spirituality, race, class and gender studies, Karanja is currently focusing her research on women’s life narratives and oral histories. Her regional interest in the black diaspora has taken her throughout Africa and the Caribbean.

Karanja serves as a lecturer and member of the Lugenia Burns Hope Center for New World Community in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood and is a founder of the Chicago Council on Black Studies.

The speech is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact Robbi Byrdsong-Wright, director of multicultural affairs at Dominican University, at (708) 524-6831.

Founded in 1901, Dominican University is a comprehensive, coeducational Catholic institution offering bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Dominican offers 50 undergraduate academic programs in the Rosary College of Arts and Sciences and 15 graduate programs through the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, the Brennan School of Business, the School of Education, the Graduate School of Social Work, and the School of Leadership and Continuing Studies. In the 2008 issue of America’s Best Colleges, U.S. News & World Report again ranked Dominican University in the top tier of Midwest master’s level universities and as a “best value” for the tenth consecutive year.