Dr. Camilla Townsend, Professor of History at Rutgers University and a renowned historian of colonial Spanish America, will deliver the 45th annual endowed Costa Lecture, “Rethinking the Aztecs: Have We Been Wrong for 500 Years?” on Oct. 12 at 7:30 p.m. in the Walter Hall Rotunda. A pre-lecture reception with refreshments begins at 7 p.m.

Author of Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs , Townsend will address what we can learn from Nahuatl-language sources produced in the sixteenth century if we open ourselves to everything they have to teach us. She will also discuss what she believes are the reasons we have tended to be resistant to their messages, even in recent times.

Sponsored by the History Department, the Costa Lecture is free and open to the public.