Internationally renowned author Isabel Allende to speak to first-year students during 2005 Milton Lecture

Internationally renowned author Isabel Allende to speak to first-year students during 2005 Milton LectureOctober 03, 2005Carol K. Masiclatclkim@syr.edu

First-year students in The College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University will attend a special lecture by famed author Isabel Allende, as part of the First Year Forum Milton Lecture Series. The lecture, which is not open to the public, will take place Oct. 10 at 7:30 p.m., in the Goldstein Auditorium of the Hildegarde and J. Myer Schine Student Center.

Best known for her novels, “Daughter of Fortune” and “The House of the Spirits,” Allende will come to SU to deliver a lecture titled, “Stories and Dreams: An Evening with Isabel Allende.”

Students have read one of two Allende works as part of their First Year Forum coursework: either “My Invented Country” (Harper Collins, 2003) or “Paula” (Harper Collins, 1995). “My Invented Country” chronicles two life-changing moments in Allende’s life – the assassination of her uncle, former Chilean president Salvador Allende, on Sept. 11, 1973; and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. “Paula” is the deeply emotional memoir Allende wrote as her daughter Paula lie in a coma caused by porphyria, a rare blood disease that eventually caused her death. In the book, Allende attempts to communicate with her unconscious daughter through a personal history that covers her childhood in turbulent Chile, the death of her uncle Salvador, and her family’s journey to Venezuela to escape the oppressive regime of Augusto Pinochet.

The works were selected as readings for the students because they not only tell the stories Allende’s extraordinary life, they tell a vivid story about her country’s history. Her work also embodies the theme of this year’s Syracuse Symposium, “Borders.”

“Having Isabel Allende offers us not only an opportunity to introduce our students to one of the 20th century’s most compelling authors, but also allows us to raise issues of justice and human rights with our students,” says Sue Wadley, associate dean of The College of Arts and Sciences and Ford Maxwell Professor of South Asian Studies. “Most First Year Forums are devoting some time to Chilean history, the 1973 coup, and the resulting resistance movement. We feel that it is essential to our students to be able to link issues of human justice with the humanities. Allende does this superbly.”

The Milton Freshman Lecture of the First Year Forum program brings a speaker of international stature to campus each fall to address the new entering class of The College of Arts and Sciences. The program was established by a gift from Jack ’51 and Laura Milton ’51 in 1999. In 2000, the Miltons established the Laura Hanhausen Milton Freshman Lecture Endowment, enabling the College to invite world-renowned scholars and writers such as Nobel Peace Prize-winning author Elie Wiesel and Toni Morrison.