Walt Fisher Lecture: A. Cheree Carlson...

March 26, 2009: Walt Fisher Lecture: A. Cheree Carlson, Arizona State University Join communication school director Larry Gross for the annual Walt Fisher Lecture, honoring emeritus professor and former communication school director Walt Fisher. This lecture will be given by A. Cheree Carlson, communication professor at Arizona State University and author of the 2009 book, The Crimes of Womanhood : Defining Femininity in a Court of Law. Her topic: Narrative border crossings: Womanhood as asset and liability in the trial of Lizzie Andrew Borden. From Carlson: As Walter Fisher has so ably demonstrated, stories are everywhere, even where we least expect them. These stories subtly alter our perspective on truth and affect many of the decisions we make on a daily basis. Our case in point is the trial of Lizzie Borden (1895) for allegedly axe murdering her father and step-mother. The case is still used today as a touchstone of nineteenth century gender norms - a murderer getting away with it because men could not be convinced that a woman was capable of a brutal slaying. It will soon become evident, however, that on rhetorical grounds, the response to that facile summary is yesbut its more complicated than that.