Paul Gilroy, a British sociologist who studies ethnic politics and cultural differences among black communities in the Western world, will discuss his work in a lecture at 4 p.m. Monday, April 6, at the University of California, Davis. Titled "Masters, Slaves and the Antinomies of Modernity," the lecture will be delivered in Room 176 of Everson Hall. The event is free and open to the public. A professor of sociology at the University of London's Goldsmith College, Gilroy studies and publishes widely on questions of culture, social movements, ethnicity, race and crime as they affect black people in the Americas and in Europe. Gilroy has argued that distinct forms of black culture have emerged in recent decades among widely dispersed black populations. In both his academic career and that as a free-lance journalist, Gilroy has focused on black music as the primary vehicle for expressions of cultural distinctiveness. In his writings, Gilroy has examined the contributions to black culture of such musicians as 2 Live Crew, Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis. He has criticized movie director Spike Lee for increasingly portraying black life "sentimentally, therapeutically and without criticism." Gilroy is the author of "There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack: The Cultural Politics of Race and Nation" (1987), and co-author and editor of "The Empire Strikes Back: Race and Racism in '70s Britain" (1982). The lecture is sponsored by the UC Davis Center for Comparative Research.