Professor Fatou Sow, chair of the Department of Social Sciences of the Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire at UniversitŽ Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal, will give a University Lecture on "Challenging the State: Women's Rights and the Future of Africa," Saturday, April 4, at 11:20 a.m. at the Women's Community Building, 100 W. Seneca St. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Sow's lecture is part of "Genders and Nations: Reflections on Women in Revolution," a conference being held at Cornell University April 2 through 5.

Sow has published widely, has been a Senior Fulbright Scholar at the University of Maryland and the University of California at Los Angeles and has collaborated with such organizations as the French Institute of Public Opinion and UNESCO. She received an honorary doctorate from the University of Toronto in 1992.

The lecture is sponsored by Cornell's University Lecture series, and the conference is sponsored by the university's Women's Studies and Gender and Global Change programs. For more information, call the Women's Studies Program office at (607) 255-6480.