Sarah Owens, professor of Spanish at the College of Charleston, will discuss the adventures of Franciscan nuns in the early 17th century on Monday, Sept. 28, at 4 p.m. at Coastal Carolina University. The free presentation will be held in the James J. Johnson Auditorium and is open to the public.

In a lecture titled "Traveling Nuns in Colonial Mexico: Tracing Their Path from Veracruz to Acapulco," Owens will follow the early 17th century Mexican adventures of Franciscan nuns during their trip from Spain to the Philippines on their way to establish the first convent in the Far East. The talk is based on Owen's forthcoming book, "Nuns Navigating the Spanish Empire."

Owens has written and co-written two other books as well, including "Women of the Iberian Atlantic" and "Journey of Five Capuchin Nuns," winner of the 2010 Josephine Roberts Prize for Best Scholarly Edition. She also won the National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for her project "The Cultural Impact of Catholic Nuns in the Spanish Philippines during the 17th-Century Expansion of the Iberian Empire."

The Johnson Auditorium is in room 116 of the E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration at 119 Chanticleer Drive, Conway. For more information, contact Bertha Fladger of CCU's Office of Multicultural Student Services at bcfladge@coastal.edu or call 843-349-2863.