Newsroom

CORVALLIS - David Hollinger, the Preston Hotchkis Professor of American History at the University of California-Berkeley, will give a free public lecture at Oregon State University on April 21 that looks at mixed race and public policy.

His talk, "Amalgamation and Hypodescent: The Question of Ethnoracial Mixture in the History of the United States," begins at 4 p.m. in Memorial Union Room 206. It is part of the American Culture and Politics series at OSU, sponsored by the university's History Department and the Thomas Hart and Mary Jones Horning Endowment in the Humanities.

In his lecture, Hollinger will examine the history of restrictions on interracial marriage in the U.S. as well as historic laws or rules for identifying African Americans. His talk also will look at how changing popular attitudes on interracial and interethnic mixtures are altering many Americans' concept and understanding of "race" in general.

Hollinger has been described as a leading figure in American intellectual history over the last 25 years. He has written widely and influentially on the roles of science and religion, pragmatism, and multiculturalism have in American public life.

He has written or edited five books, including "In the American Province: Studies in the History and Historiography of Ideas."