Elizabeth Grosz, an internationally known philosopher and gender theorist, will present a lecture on music and sexual selection as part of the Jackson Distinguished Lecture Series Thursday, Oct. 5, at West Virginia University. The lecture, free and open to the public, will be held in the Mountainlairs Rhododendron Room at noon.

Vibration: Darwin, Deleuze and Musicwill explore the link between music and sexual selection in the origin and overcoming of the human. This interdisciplinary talk will explore the role of sound and rhythm in animal life. Grosz will argue that human artistic production is the consequence of ones animal and sexual, rather than rational and cognitive, affiliations.

Grosz is currently professor of Womens and Gender Studies at Rutgers University. She has also taught at the University of Sydney, Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, SUNY Buffalo and Johns Hopkins University.

She is the author of the booksVolatile BodiesandTime Travels,as well as several other works of cultural and gender criticism.

The Jackson Distinguished Lecture Series was created in 2004 by Professor Donald E. Hall, Jackson Chair in the Department of English, as part of his duties as a distinguished professor.

The series brings to campus nationally and internationally known scholars in literary and cultural studies to give a public lecture and to work in seminar with graduate students.

The series is supported by funds from the Jackson Family Endowment with the support of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences and the WVU Department of English.

For more information, contact Donald Hall, donald.hall@mail.wvu.edu or 304-293-3107, ext. 33435.