11/5/99
ATHENS, Ohio-- University of London Professor Shula Marks will deliver the 22nd Costa Lecture in History on "Changing History, Changing Histories: Separations and Connections in the Lives of South African Women" at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov.9, in 237 Morton Hall.
Marks will revisit the subjects that framed her book "Not Either an Experimental Doll." In this work, she examined the interactions between a young black woman who desperately wanted to gain an education, an older white woman who first befriended and then betrayed her and a middle-aged black woman who failed to find a way to mediate between the two.
Marks' contributions to history have been recognized by honorary degrees from South African institutions, election as a Fellow in the British Academy and designation as an Officer of the British Empire. Marks is a faculty member of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and is credited with changing the way history is written in South Africa. Her research has demonstrated how the past embraced by the apartheid regime was a mixture of fallacy and mythology designed to sustain white rule over a black majority.
Marks' publications range over the fields of social and economic history with special focus on the history of health care, women, race, class, ethnicity, and nationalism. Her books include "Apartheid and Health" and "Divided Sisterhood: Race, Class, and Gender in the South African Nursing Profession."
The lecture is free and open to the public.