Author Courtney Martin to speak about girls’ bodies, identity and eating disorders Oct. 30

Lecture: Courtney E. Martin – “Perfect Girls: Starving Daughters”
Date: Tuesday, Oct. 30 at 8 p.m.
Location: Newcomer Center Room 17
Cost: Free and open to the public
Event sponsors: Goshen College Women’s Studies, Committee for Health and Wellness, Bible/ Religion Department and Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies Department
Web site: www.courtneyemartin.com

GOSHEN, Ind. – Courtney E. Martin, author of the 2007 book “Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters” (Simon & Schuster’s Free Press), will talk about her book and the personal and generational challenges young adult women face in the 21st century at Goshen College on Tuesday, Oct. 30 at 8 p.m. in Newcomer Center Room 17. Martin offers a broad context for considering issues of body, identity and spirituality.

Martin’s book is filled with information from expert psychologists and hundreds of interviews with women with eating disorders, and is a wake-up call to women of all ages and races to recognize the epidemic of eating disorders and what it's doing to them, their daughters, friends and relatives. She argues passionately that women must commit themselves to developing new attitudes about their bodies.

Martin is a young writer originally from Colorado Springs, Colo. She writes for a range of national publications, including Newsweek, Newsday, Alternet, The Christian Science Monitor, Utne Reader and Publisher's Weekly among others. She has been honored with the ChoiceUSA Setting the Message Straight Award, the Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics and fellowships from the Puffin Foundation, the Clark Foundation and the Oral History Association. In addition, she is a Woodhull fellow.

Martin has a master’s degree from the Gallatin School at New York University in writing and social change and a bachelor’s degree from Barnard College in political science and sociology. She is currently an adjunct professor of gender studies at Hunter College.

This event is sponsored by Goshen College Women’s Studies Department, Committee for Health and Wellness, Bible/Religion Department and the Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies Department.

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu. 

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Goshen College, established in 1894, is a residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S.News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.