PORT TOWNSEND — Laura Lewis will present “Linguistic Biogeography: How Languages Evolve, Spread and Go Extinct” at a Clemente Eclectic Lecture at 3 p.m. Sunday.
The talk will be at Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 2333 San Juan Ave.
It is a benefit for the Jefferson Clemente Course, a free college-level course in the humanities for low-income students.
The cost is $15 for adults, $5 for students, with those 18 and younger admitted free.
Lewis will discuss how language is distributed across the planet, focusing on current and historical levels of linguistic diversity.
She also will address the impact of agricultural development on linguistic diversity and diffusion of languages worldwide.
Expertise
Lewis serves as director of the Washington State University’s Jefferson County Extension Office.
She formerly served as professor of biogeography at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
One of her areas of scholarly focus was on the origin of agriculture and patterns of plant domestication and geographic diffusion.
Lewis has a doctorate in geography with a focus on biogeography from the University of California, Davis.
For more information, email hiltonl@olympus.net or visit www.jeffersonclemente.org.