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CORVALLIS - Tony Grafton, a professor of history and chair of the Council of the Humanities at Princeton University, will give the annual George and Dorothy Carson History Lecture on Monday, April 11, at Oregon State University.

His talk, "Times Past: Visions of World History in Pre-Modern Europe," begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Construction and Engineering Auditorium at LaSells Stewart Center. It is free and open to the public.

Grafton specializes in the intellectual and cultural history of Renaissance Europe. In his lecture, he will draw parallels to different eras of globalization and the challenges faced by historians and other scholars in trying to accurately portray a changing world.

Many of the challenges globalization brings today were faced by scholars and teachers across Europe from 1450 to 1700. Ancient books offered a view on the world that was no longer complete or accurate, and little clear information was available on other lands - like the Americas or East Asia.

In his lecture, Grafton will look at how early world historians confronted these problems, what resources they use, and the successes and failures of their efforts.

The author of four books, Grafton taught at Cornell University before joining the Princeton faculty. He is a 2003 recipient of the Andrew Mellon Foundation's Distinguished Achievement Award.

The lecture is sponsored by the OSU History Department.