Media Contact: Kate Callen (858) 534-0361

CITY OF QUARTZ AUTHOR MIKE DAVIS DELIVERS ELLIOTT LECTURE MAY 23

Historian and social critic Mike Davis, author of the acclaimed City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles and a 1998 MacArthur Foundation Fellow, will deliver the annual Robert C. Elliott Memorial Lecture, "Magical Urbanism: Latinos Reinvent the U.S. City," at the University of California, San Diego on Tuesday, May 23, at 7:30 p.m. in Center Hall, Room 115. Sponsored by the Department of Literature with the support of the Robert C. Elliott Memorial Fund, the lecture is free and open to the public.

Davis's new book, Magical Urbanism: Latinos Reinvent the U.S. City (Verso Books), focuses on how Latinos are attempting to translate their urban demographic ascendancy into effective social power. His earlier book, Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster, looked at the peculiarities of life in a megalopolis characterized by social unrest and natural calamity. A New York Times reviewer wrote, "What Mike Davis offers in Ecology of Fear ... is a truly eccentric contribution to the ideological fray of the Golden State," and the Los Angeles Times said, "Ecology of Fear will not likely appear on tourist bureau or Chamber of Commerce reading lists, but it must be read by anyone who cares about Los Angeles."

For further information, please contact Barbara Saxon, Department of Literature, (858) 534-4618.