Examining how human rights discourses and institutions have changed gender norms and responses to gender violence in rural Ecuador, Karin Friederic, the Luther College Women and Gender Studies program's fall 2017 Price Lecturer, will deliver a lecture titled "Women's Rights, Gender Violence and Body Politics in Coastal Ecuador" at 5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 2, in the F.W. Olin Building Room 102 on Luther's campus.

The Price Lecture, open to the public with no charge for admission, is an endowed lecture funded by Lucile Brickner Brown Price to feature speakers who illustrate the roles, contributions, programs and achievements of women as leaders in society.

In her lecture, Friederic explains how exposure to state media campaigns, laws, health policies and international development partnerships introduces new ideas of gender and selfhood, new visions of rights and development, and changing definitions of what counts as violence.

By following families over 15 years of research and friendship, Friederic demonstrates how women and men of all ages are struggling to develop new understandings of themselves and their intimate—and sometimes violent—relationships to one another. She will also address a recent intervention against intimate partner violence at her field site and provide broader lessons for women's rights advocacy across the globe.

Friederic is an assistant professor of anthropology at Wake Forest University. A cultural anthropologist, she specializes in gender, violence, human rights, development and global health. Through her nonprofit organization, The Minga Foundation, she has worked with Ecuadorian communities in their efforts to obtain quality healthcare for more than fifteen years.

A national liberal arts college with an enrollment of 2,050, Luther offers an academic curriculum that leads to the Bachelor of Arts degree in more than 60 majors and pre-professional programs. For more information about Luther visit the college's website: http://www.luther.edu.