Masha Gessen, a Russian journalist/activist who's written an unauthorized biography of Vladamir Putin, will speak March 11 at Lafayette College.

Gessen -- who also blogs for the New York Times -- will give two free lectures at the school.

The first, scheduled for 12:15 p.m. at the Gendebien Room of Skillman Library, will focus on Gessen's book The Man Without a Face, described as a "chilling account of how a low-level, small-minded KGB operative ascended to the Russian presidency and, in an astonishingly short time, destroyed years of progress."

Her second talk “The Anatomy of a Crackdown: The Laws, Slogans, and Practices of the New Russia” is scheduled for 4:15 p.m. in room 104 of the Kirby Hall of Civil Rights.

Gessen’s other books include Blood Matters: From Inherited Illness to Designer Babies, How the World and I Found Ourselves in the Future of the Gene (2008); and Perfect Rigor: A Genius and the Mathematical Breakthrough of the Century (2009).

She has also written for The New Republic, Granta, Slate, Vanity Fair, and U.S. News and World Report.