Expert on race and identity to speak

Renowned scholar of ethics and ethnicity Kwame Anthony Appiah, professor of Afro-American studies and philosophy at Harvard, will give the free public talk “Race, Gender and Individuality” at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, April 4, in Great Hall, Memorial Union, 800 Langdon St.

Appiah will explore how liberalism, as described in John Stuart Mill’s “On Liberty,” has long celebrated individuality: self-creation, self-definition and the management of one’s own life.

Raised in Ghana and educated at Cambridge in England, Appiah began his academic career as a philosopher specializing in semantics and logic. He has published widely in African and African-American literary and cultural studies.

He is the author of the award-winning book, “In My Father’s House,” which deals with the role of African and African-American intellectuals in shaping contemporary African cultural life. He also co-authored “Color Conscious,” which discusses political morality and race, and has published three novels and a CD-ROM encyclopedia, “Encarta Africana.”

The lecture is sponsored by Center for the Humanities. For information call (608) 263-3409.