Forum Series kicks off with author Beverly Lowry
COLUMBUS, Miss.— Mississippi University for Women’s Fall Forum Series hosted by the Gordy Honors College will kick off Thursday, Aug. 25 with author Beverly Lowry, who will discuss her new book, “Deer Creek Drive: A Reckoning of Memory and Murder in the Mississippi Delta” with Mississippi novelist Deborah Johnson.
Lowry was 10 and lived mere miles from where society matron Idella Thompson was viciously murdered in 1948. In Deer Creek Drive, she tells a story of white privilege that still has ramifications and reflects on the brutal crime, its aftermath and the ways it clarified her own upbringing in Mississippi.
Lowry is the author of six novels and four other works of nonfiction. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone and many other publications. She has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Texas Institute of Letters and the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters.
Signed copies of “Deer Creek Drive” are available at Friendly City Books.
On Thursday, Sept. 15, Abigail Franks will discuss her work on climate resilience and lead a discussion about how we can practice hope in collectively imagining a more sustainable and just future. Franks is programs and policy coordinator with the Southeast Climate & Energy Network (SCEN) and host of the podcast Climate Justice Y’all. Later named a Udall Scholar, she founded WEARE (We Envision Alabamian Renewable Energy) while an honors undergraduate at University of Alabama at Birmingham.
On Thursday, Oct. 13, Dr. Thomas S. Bremer will discuss the roles of religion in the history of national parks and the importance of the parks in the culture of the U.S. A long-time scholar of religion and tourism, he is associate professor of religious studies at Rhodes College and author of “Blessed with Tourists: The Borderlands of Religion and Tourism in San Antonio” and “Formed From This Soil: An Introduction to the Diverse History of Religion in America.”
The Forum Series concludes Nov. 10 and 17 with the Honors College’s Research Symposium showcasing the independent research of honors seniors
All events begin at 6 p.m. in Nissan Auditorium on The W campus. All members of The W community are invited, and all events are also free and open to the public. For more information, email honors@muw.edu, call (662) 241-6850, or visit www.muw.edu/honors/forum.