LEWISTON, Maine -- Author and professor Bruce Lincoln, hailed as one of the leading thinkers in the area of cultural studies, will discuss the meaning of the word "culture" in a lecture at Bates College on (Monday) Sept. 30.

Lincoln, currently professor of the history of religion at the University of Chicago, will speak on "Meditations on 'Culture'" at 7:30 p.m. in the Benjamin Mays Center. The public is invited to attend at no charge.

Lincoln's books include "Authority: Construction and Corrosion" and "Emerging from the Chrysalis: Studies in Rituals of Women's Initiation." He previously taught at the University of Minnesota, where he was cofounder of the Program in Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society.

His talk at Bates is sponsored by the Department of German, Russian and East Asian Languages and Literatures and the Department of Political Science. It is the first in a series of lectures, "Performing Cultures: Lectures, Opera and Cabaret."