Siobhan B. Somerville, associate professor of English and gender and women’s studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, will deliver UGA’s 23rd annual Andrea Carson Coley Lecture April 21 at 12:30 p.m. in the M. Smith Griffith Auditorium in the Georgia Museum of Art.
The lecture, “Unsettling Citizenship: Sexuality, Race and the History of Naturalization in the U.S.,” will follow a reception honoring the Coley family at 11:30 a.m. The lecture and reception are open free to the public.
Somerville’s expertise includes feminist theory, queer studies and American literature. She has written extensively about the intersection of race and sexuality in U.S. literature and history and is currently studying immigration law and U.S. citizenship. Her publications include Queering the Color Line: Race and the Invention of Homosexuality in American Culture (Duke University Press, 2000) and “Notes Toward a Queer History of Naturalization” in American Quarterly.
The Andrea Carson Coley Lecture, hosted by the UGA Institute for Women’s Studies, was endowed through a donation from Andrew and Kathy Coley in memory of their daughter, Andrea Carson Coley (1972-1993), who was a certificate candidate in women’s studies. Each spring, the lecture brings to campus scholars conducting cutting-edge research in LGBT studies.
This year’s lecture is co-sponsored by the Georgia Museum of Art and the LGBT Resource Center.
The Institute for Women’s Studies is part of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.
