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CORVALLIS - Christine Worobec, the Presidential Research Scholar at Northern Illinois University, will deliver the annual Carson History Lecture at Oregon State University on Monday, Oct. 27 - a talk that examines women's spirituality in late 19th-century Russia.

Her lecture, "Orthodoxy and Women's Spirituality in Late Imperial Russia," begins at 7:30 p.m. in LaSells Stewart Center. It is free and open to the public.

Russian Orthodox Christianity experienced a profound revival that began in the second half of the 19th century and women's spirituality was a vital component of that change, Worobec says. In her talk, she will discuss the development of women's religious communities, the prominent role females assumed in pilgrimages and cases of demonic possession and the emergence of women as receivers of divine grace through faith healing and mysticism - and how these altered perceptions of women's religious roles.

Worobec received the Heldt Prize from the Association of Women in Slavic Studies in 1991 and 2001, the only scholar to have won twice. The award is presented for the best book in Slavic, east European or Eurasian women's studies.

Her 2001 book is titled "Possessed: Women, Witches, and Demons in Imperial Russia."

Worobec is working on a two-volume bibliography of women and gender in Russia, and researching a book on the feminization of religion in Imperial Russia. She has a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto.

The George and Dorothy Carson History Lecture is supported by an endowment honoring George Carson, former chair of the OSU Department of History, and his wife, Dorothy.