Honors College
University Forum Speaker Schedule
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Since 1974, University Forum has brought hundreds of respected and innovative speakers to Southern Miss. In 2024, University Forum is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of this extraordinary Southern Miss tradition with an incredible slate of speakers and, of course, cake. (Our anniversary celebration will take place on October 8th!)
Registration is not required and all Forum events are free and open to the public. We are happy, however, to send you a reminder email (that will include an easy-to-use link to attend virtually).
All fall 2024 Forum events will be held in person at Bennett Auditorium on the Hattiesburg Campus. Most Forum events are also available through a livestream broadcast. Links to live events will be posted below the speaker’s bio on the day of the event. (Live streams of Forum events are offered as a courtesy; unfortunately, we cannot guarantee the quality of the live stream and cannot take questions from the online audience. If you are a student and your instructor requires proof of attendance, you must attend the in-person event to have your attendance recorded.)
If you require a sign language translator or any other accessibility accommodations, please contact University Forum at forumFREEMississippi at your earliest convenience.
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Spring 2025 Speaker Schedule
Ada Limón
February 11, 2025
6:30 p.m.
Bennett Auditorium
Ada Limón is the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States and the first Latina to be named Poet Laureate. Her poems explore themes of identity, nature, and the human experience. Born in 1976 in Sonoma, California, Limón grew up in a rural setting, and her work has been praised for its lyrical beauty, emotional depth, and keen observations of the natural world. She has published several poetry collections, including Bright Dead Things, a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is a highly respected teacher and has taught poetry at various universities and writing programs. University Forum is proud to partner with The University of Southern Mississippi’s Center for Writers to bring Ada Limon to Southern Miss to talk about the role of poetry in our lives.
Armstrong-Branch Lecture Series
Presents Kevin Richardson, Criminal Justice Advocate
March 18, 2025
6:30 p.m.
Thad Cochran Center Ballrooms
Kevin Richardson and four other Black and Latino youths aged 14 to 16, known as the Central Park Five, were arrested, coerced into confessing, tried, and convicted after a jogger, Trisha Meili, was brutally raped in 1989. None were guilty and in 2002 their cases were overturned based on a confession and DNA evidence. The wrongful convictions of the Central Park Five are widely viewed as evidence that bias continues to shape the experience of people of color when dealing with the judicial system. Richardson, who spent seven years in jail before his exoneration, now collaborates with the Innocence Project working to prevent future injustices. His story and the stories of the other Central Park Five were featured in the Netflix series When They See Us (2019). The Armstrong-Branch Lecture Series, named after the first Black students to enroll at Southern Miss, has partnered with University Forum to bring Richardson to speak.
Lachi
April 8, 2025
6:30 p.m.
Mannoni Performing Arts Center
As a globally touring performer, charting recording artist and award-winning social entrepreneur, Lachi—born legally blind—uses her platform in music, storytelling and fashion to amplify identity pride and Disability Culture to mainstream discussion. From walking the New York Fashion Week and Barbie Premiere carpets with a bejeweled cane to belting ballads on the TEDx stage, Lachi incorporates her disability identity into all aspects of her art, and art into all aspects of her activism. Her work has been lauded in the New York Times, Billboard, Forbes, Good Morning America and USA Today, where she was named a 2024 Woman of the Year.
Lachi is Founder of the U.N.-recognized organization RAMPD (Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities), which—through collaborations with firms like Netflix, Live Nationt, TIDAL and more—brings disability-inclusive programming to the industry and career opportunity to music professionals with disabilities, neurodivergence, and chronic and mental health conditions. RAMPD partners with the GRAMMYs and other notable concerts, festivals and events on high-visibility accessibility and inclusion. In 2023 RAMPD received Ford funding, a Music Business Association award, and a Borealis Philanthropy award for working to bridge the inequality gap for hundreds of music professionals. In 2024 Lachi was named Innovator of the Year by ADCOLOR for her work with RAMPD.
Fall 2024 Speaker Schedule
Ed Yong
September 17, 2024
6:30 p.m.
Bennett Auditorium
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ed Yong explores complex scientific concepts in accessible ways. A former staff writer at The Atlantic, Yong’s 2016 book I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life and his 2022 book An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us were both New York Times bestsellers and An Immense World won the Andrew Carnegie Medal. The Poynter Institute for Media Studies named him “the most important and impactful journalist” of 2020 for his writing on the coronavirus. At Forum, Yong will speak about the “unique sensory bubble” that all animals live in and how humans perceive “but a tiny sliver of an immense world.”
Kathleen Koch
50th Anniversary Event
October 8, 2024
6:30 p.m.
Bennett Auditorium
A Mississippi native and graduate of the Honors College at Southern Miss, Kathleen Koch covered the White House, Capitol Hill, and Pentagon as well as almost every disaster imaginable during her 18 years as a correspondent at CNN. She is the author of Rising from Katrina: How My Mississippi Hometown Lost It All and Found What Mattered and her two documentaries on Bay St. Louis’s recovery earned her a Peabody Award. In 2018, she was named to the Southern Miss Alumni Hall of Fame and she currently serves on the USM School of Mass Communications and Journalism Advisory Board. At Forum, Koch will speak about her experiences as a journalist and the importance of persistence and listening to your inner voice in making a meaningful difference in the world.
| 11-8-24 Update: Unfortunately, Erin Brockovich will not able to speak at the November 12 University Forum. However, we are overjoyed to announce that Dr. Jessica B. Harris, a renowned food scholar, will be speaking at Forum. |
Jessica B. Harris
November 12, 2024
6:30 p.m.
Bennett Auditorium
Dr. Jessica B. Harris is one of the leading authorities on the culture and cuisine of the African Diaspora. She is featured in the Netflix series High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America. The series, based on her 2011 award-winning book, traces the roots of Black culinary traditions from their African origins through the history of slavery to their transformative influence on American cuisine today.
Harris was an editor at Essence and is a professor emeritus from Queens College, City University of New York. She is the author of twelve books. She has been honored with lifetime achievement awards from the James Beard Foundation and the Southern Foodways Alliance, and her books were inducted into the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame. Harris is the recipient of the 2023 IACP Award for Culinary History and in 2021 she was named to the Time100, the magazine’s annual list of the most influential people in the world.