The Marcus W. Orr Center for the Humanities
announces Fall 2012 Calendar

This fall, the Marcus W. Orr Center for the Humanities at The University of Memphis presents five engaging events, all free and open to the public. MOCH is dedicated to bringing together students, graduates, faculty, and the broader Memphis community for events that promote richer, deeper conversations about the issues that matter to us all.

All MOCH events have a reception at 6:00 p.m. and a lecture at 6:30, with a booksigning to follow. Unless otherwise noted, the events take place in the University Center Theater at the University of Memphis. For more information please visit www.memphis.edu/moch or contact Dr. Aram Goudsouzian at agoudszn@memphis.edu or 901-678-2520.

• On Thursday, September 13, Kristen Iversen, Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Memphis, discusses her blockbuster new book, Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats. This event will be at the IMAX Theatre at the Pink Palace Museum, 3050 Central Avenue.
  
  
• On Thursday, September 27, Karlyn Campbell, Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Minnesota, delivers a timely lecture called "Partisanship and the Presidency," tracing the historical growth of executive power through American military engagements. She also looks at how these issues are influencing the 2012 presidential candidates.
  
  
• On Thursday, October 18, Katherine Bassard, Professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University, speaks about her latest book, Transforming Scriptures: African American Women Writers and the Bible. She examines how the Bible initially inscribed black women as "cursed" victims, and how black female writers have recast the Bible into an instrument of "blessing."
  
  
• On Thursday, November 1, Deborah Gray White, Board of Governors Professor of History and Women's Studies at Rutgers University, delivers a talk entitled, "Brown Sugar Melts: African American Women at the Turn of the Millennium." Analyzing such public events as the Million Man March, she explores the opinions and feelings of ordinary black women about such topics as marriage, family, gun control, and men.
  
  
• On Wednesday, November 14, Valerie Hudson, the George H.W. Bush Chair at The Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, speaks about "Sex and World Peace." She argues that the very best predictor of a state's peacefulness is not its level of wealth, its level of democracy, or its ethno-religious identity; the best predictor of state security is its treatment of women.