University Libraries to present Summer Bicentennial Lecture Series

University Libraries' Special Collections at The University of Southern Mississippi is continuing its celebration of Mississippi's Bicentennial with two summer lectures that will examine Mississippi's film industry and Mississippi as a landscape for literature.

The summer series will begin June 7 with Nina Parikh, deputy director of the Mississippi Film Office, and conclude July 12 with Margaret McMullan, an award-winning author and Mississippi native.

In her lecture, “Film Mississippi: 1914-2017,” Parikh will discuss the state's cinematic history as well as its future in the film industry. Scheduled to coincide with the Festival South Film Expo Festival (FSFX), Parikh's lecture will take place Wednesday, June 7 from 1-3 p.m. at the Little Building in downtown Hattiesburg.

Mississippi's film history is rich with stories inspired by Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, John Grisham, and many more. Mississippi is also the birthplace of some of the most recognizable names in the industry, such as Morgan Freeman, James Earl Jones, Parker Posey, Gerald McRaney, Jim Henson, Elvis Presley and Oprah Winfrey. Mississippi is also the location of a number of notable films that include A Time to Kill, The Help, O, Brother Where Art Thou? and My Dog Skip. 

McMullan, the author of seven award-winning novels, will present “Mississippi as Landscape” July 12 at 6:30 p.m. at The Library of Hattiesburg. McMullan is the author of When Warhol Was Still Alive, In My Mother's House, How I Found the Strong, When I Crossed No-Bob, and Cashay. In 2015, she and Phillip Lopate curated Every Father's Daughter, an anthology of essays about fathers by great women writers such as Alice Munro, Ann Hood, and Jane Smiley.

McMullan has been the recipient of various honors and awards. She was the recipient of a NEA Fellowship in literature, a Fulbright at the University of Pécs in Pécs, Hungary, and the National Author Winner of the 2011 Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Award. In 2007, she was the Eudora Welty Visiting Writer at Millsaps College in Jackson. She was the Melvin Peterson Endowed Chair in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Evansville, where she taught for 25 years. A resident of Pass Christian, Miss., she continues writing full-time.

This official bicentennial project was made possible by a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council, through support from the Mississippi Development Authority.

For additional information, contact Lorraine Stuart at Lorraine.StuartFREEMississippi or 601.266.4117.