Author and French scholar Jean Macary will give a lecture titled "Voltaire's fight against fanaticism" at Coastal Carolina University on Thursday, Feb. 26 from 5 to 7 p.m. in room 222 of the E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration. The event, part of the University's Nancy Arthur Smith Distinguished Visitor Series, is free and open to the public.

Macary, an internationally distinguished scholar of French literature and philosophy, is the author of several books and articles on French writer and philosopher Voltaire, a leading figure of the Enlightenment period. Macary has held teaching and administrative positions at Princeton and Fordham universities, and he is a past president of the American Society of French Teachers.

Macary is retired and lives in Pawleys Island, but he still participates in activities at Charleston's Alliance Française and the College of Charleston.

The Nancy Arthur Smith Visitors Series is funded through a gift presented to the University by the late Nancy A. Smith and her husband Dr. R. Cathcart Smith. The series invites artists and intellectuals with distinguished careers in history, art, archaeology, international affairs or philosophy to speak on campus.

The series is sponsored by the University's departments of Foreign Languages, Politics and Geography, Religion and Philosophy. For more information, call Catherine Dreger at 843-349-2450.