The University of South Alabama department of sociology, anthropology and social work will feature noted scholar, Dr. Lee Clarke, for the 2007 Mardi Gras lecture.  Clarke will speak on "Worst Case Thinking in a Dangerous Age," at 6 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 15 in the Humanities Building, Room 170. Admission is free and the event is open to the public.

Clarke, a professor of sociology at Rutgers University, is known for his research and publications on culture, disaster, and organizational and technological failures. He earned his doctoral degree in sociology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and is presently serving as the Anschutz Distinguished Fellow of American Studies at Princeton University. Most recently, he appeared on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, ABC World News Tonight, and National Public Radio's affiliate in Irvine, Calif.

Clarke is an authority on such issues as the feared Y2K predictions, risk communication, panic, civil defense and community response to disaster. His latest book, published last year by the University of Chicago Press, "Worst Cases: Terror and Catastrophe in the Popular Imagination," has received positive reviews in Contemporary Sociology and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Clarke was awarded the Rutgers Graduate School Award for Excellence in Teaching and Graduate Research and was also honored with the Fred Buttel Distinguished Scholarship Award by the American Sociological Association.