Books are like life—always partial, fragmentary, and refracted by experience. But a finished book is hardly the whole story.

Join Kim Haines-Eitzen for a "Chats in the Stacks" talk about her new book “The Gendered Palimpsest: Women, Writing, and Representation in Early Christianity” (Oxford University Press, November 2011) which explores the roles that women played in the production, reproduction, and dissemination of early Christian books, and how the representation of female characters was contested through the medium of writing and copying. In the author’s words, “it is best to think of books and life as endlessly palimpsestuous—layers upon layers of writing, interpretation, memory, and experience.”

Dr. Haines-Eitzen is the H. Stanley Krusen Professor of World Religions, Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Cornell, and the Director of the Religious Studies Program.

Following the talk, Dr. Haines-Eitzen will lead a question and answer session. Light refreshments will be available throughout the event and books will be available for purchase and signing.