EUGENE, Ore. -- (April 13, 2011) -- Dissident Noam Chomsky, who has described his political views as "fairly traditional anarchist ones," will speak April 20 at the University of Oregon as a part of The Collins Distinguished Speaker Series.

Chomsky is considered to be one of the fathers of modern linguistics, but has been better known since the 1960s as a prominent critic of U.S. foreign policy. He is a member of the Industrial Workers of the World ("Wobblies") international union and his book, "Chomsky on Anarchism," was published in 2006 by the anarchist book collective AK Press. His opposition to the Vietnam War -- and his 1967 essay "The Responsibility of Intellectuals" -- established Chomsky as a leading commentator on world politics.

He will lecture at the UO on "Global Hegemony: The Facts, The Images." The talk will be at 7 p.m. in Columbia 150 and will be free and open to the public.

Chomsky has accused the U.S. of double standards for preaching democracy while strategically befriending repressive regimes. He also criticized the Soviet Union for its imperialism before the USSR's collapse in 1991. Other targets of his criticism include the U.S. mass media and the global war on drugs - which he describes as "the war on certain drugs."

The UO's Collins Distinguished Speaker Series, sponsored by the Department of English, is devoted to the themes of "ethnicity, modernity, and globality." It features writers, scholars and artists of national and international recognition. Past speakers include National Book Award Winner Ha Jin; and Junot Diaz, the Pulitzer-winning novelist.

Chomsky received his Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1955. He then went to MIT and in 1961 was appointed professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics. Chomsky has received honorary degrees from universities around the world, and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Science.

About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is among the 108 institutions chosen from 4,633 U.S. universities for top-tier designation of "Very High Research Activity" in the 2010 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO also is one of two Pacific Northwest members of the Association of American Universities.

MEDIA CONTACT: Joe Mosley, UO media relations, 541-346-3606, jmosley@uoregon.edu

SOURCE: David Leiwei Li, Collins Professor of the Humanities, UO Department of English, 541-346-3940, davidlli@uoregon.edu