An Iowa State English professor will be discussing the book she wrote about her life in Amish society in the modern era.

Today from noon to 2 p.m., Mary Swander, a professor of English currently on leave, will present a Women in Touch seminar on the topics discussed in her book Out of this World: A Woman’s Life Among the Amish in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union.

The discussion will feature a discussion of Swander’s life in the Amish community of Kalona, one of the largest Amish communities in this part of the country.

The catalyst behind Swander’s move to an Amish society was the discovery that she had Environmental Illness, an affliction which caused her to “have an allergic reaction to almost everything she ate,” said Claire Anderson, Sloss House Women’s Center secretary. These allergies were found to be caused by an allergy to the pesticides and dyes which are commonly found in most of the foods in the American diet.

In order to get away from the environmental pollution causing her illness, Swander bought a schoolhouse in Kalona where she moved and began growing her own food, Anderson said.

In addition to the main speaker, the winners of this year’s Carrie Chapman Catt Sex Equity Awards will be recognized: Linda Galyon, professor of English; Margaret Torrie, associate professor of family and consumer science education, and Elizabeth Beck, coordinator of the honors program.

The seminar is part of the Sloss House Women’s Center’s annual series of Women in Touch speakers. The speakers are picked by the University Committee on Women to speak to the university community on different subjects, Anderson said. “These seminars are a way of bringing women together to do something interesting and fun,” she added.

In keeping in accordance with Swander’s allergies, Anderson said that they are asking those attending the lecture not to wear perfume or scented body products, and to refrain from smoking.