The lecture is free and open to the public.

Mullings' lecture, "The Sojourner Syndrome: Participatory Research and Women's Health in Harlem, New York," will address the persistent reality that African-American women—at all socioeconomic levels—are at higher risk than white women for contracting many illnesses, developing chronic conditions, and dying, especially during pregnancy.

Mullings headed a team of scholars and community members in Harlem in a multi-year, multi-site, participatory project on the social contexts of reproduction that was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and is discussed in her latest book with Alaka Wali, Stress and Resilience: The Social Context of Reproduction in Central Harlem.

In her talk at USC, Mullings will also address how to see the social contexts of women’s lives through a participatory research process that respects community members, actively engages them in all phases of the research, and leaves the communities better off.

In addition to her work in medical and urban anthropology, Mullings has been one of the pioneers in developing theory about the complexities of race, class, and gender in the U.S. Her books include On Our Own Terms: Race, Class, and Gender in the Lives of African American Women; Freedom: A Photographic History of the African American Struggle (with Manning Marable); and Let Nobody Turn Us Around: An Anthology of African American Social and Political Thought from Slavery to the Present (with Manning Marable). She received the Society for the Anthropology of North America’s Prize for Distinguished Achievement in the Critical Study of North America and the French-American Foundation Prize: Chair in American Civilization, Ecoles des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France. She has held faculty positions at New York University, Princeton University, Columbia University, and the University of California Berkeley.

The Freeman Lecture was established in 1993 in memory of Adrenée Glover Freeman, a Columbia attorney who was active in civic affairs and served on the Community Advisory Board of the USC Women’s Studies Program. Mullings’ visit is co-sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts, the African American Studies Program, the Arnold School of Public Health, the College of Nursing, the Department of Anthropology, and the Prevention Research Center. Contributions to the Freeman lecture fund may be made to the Women’s Studies Endowment Fund, USC Educational Foundation, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208.

09/03