Author and Victorian studies scholar Jay Clayton of Vanderbilt University will present a University Lecture Tuesday, March 27, at 4:30 p.m. in Kaufmann Auditorium of Goldwin Smith Hall. The title of Clayton's talk is "The Human Genome in Literature and Film." The lecture, which includes video images, is free and open to the public.
"Jay Clayton's research has direct bearing on students today, and I expect this talk to be of great interest to those enrolled in the biological sciences, science and technology studies as well as students in English, history and film," said Molly Hite, Cornell professor of English. "He is enthusiastically involved in contemporary culture even as he is dubious about some of its implications. And he knows his genetics."
Clayton is among a handful of eminent professors of English who are creatively engaged with developments in information technology and biotechnology. He currently is at work on a book project titled Genome Time, which examines the different ways genetics discourses have entered popular and elite culture. Clayton has been invited to give the plenary address for the upcoming 10th anniversary celebration of the Ethical Legal and Social Implications program of the National Institutes of Health's Human Genome Project.
Clayton received his B.A. from Yale University and his Ph.D from the University of Virginia. He is a professor of English at Vanderbilt. He has written two award-winning books: The Pleasures of Babel: Contemporary American Literature and Theory (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993) and Romantic Vision and the Novel (Cambridge University Press, 1987).
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