Deborah Brandt, one of the foremost scholars of literacy in the United States, will deliver a public lecture titled 'Literacy in America: Is Writing a Right or a Resource?" at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 19, in Room 132 of the Chemistry Building on the University of Arkansas campus.

"In the United States and elsewhere, literacy is often framed as a universal human right, even as, in reality, literacy continues to be a painful arena for political and social inequality," Brandt said. "In this talk, I will reflect on a crucial turn in early U.S. legislative history that weakened guarantees of literacy for all and examine this turn in light of struggles that persist in the history of American education and in the lives of everyday Americans."

Deborah Brandt is professor emerita of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where for 30 years she taught writing and researched the changing social contexts of mass literacy. She is author of the award-winning books, Literacy in American Lives (2001) and The Rise of Writing (2015). Her talk is sponsored by the Brown Chair in English Literacy and is the culminating event in a semester-long colloquium, developed in conjunction with English education faculty members in the College of Education and Health Professions, called "Literacy, Equity, and the American Creed."

The public is welcome at Brandt's lecture. For more information, write to professor David Jolliffe at djollif@uark.edu or call him at 479-575-2289.