Contact: Maridith Geuder
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A Thursday [Nov. 8] ceremony at Mississippi State will inaugurate formally the university's new African-American studies program.
Jacqueline E. Wade, a black studies curriculum specialist and faculty member at Middle Tennessee State University, will deliver a keynote address during a 2 p.m. public event in the John Grisham Room of Mitchell Memorial Library.
She will be joined on the program by President Robert H. "Doc" Foglesong, program director Stephen Middleton, Provost Peter Rabideau, and Interim Arts and Sciences Dean Gary Myers. Special music will be provided by the student Black Voices choral group.
An initiative growing out of FutureState 2015, the university's strategic planning effort, the cultural studies program was created last year and begun in August. It's designed to prepare all students for an increasingly diverse and global community, said Middleton.
"We're very pleased to have a leader in this effort like Dr. Wade to provide our inaugural lecture," he added.
Wade earned her undergraduate degree from Fisk University and master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. She has gained recognition for her development of educational approaches that focus on student attitudes and behaviors related to race, gender and social class.
She has taught courses on multicultural education, cultural diversity, African American women in the modern civil rights movement, and the black child, among others.
Wade also is the author of a forthcoming book titled "The Spirit and Substance of Africana Heritage: Saving Our Children." In addition to writing and lecturing widely, she serves frequently as a consultant on a variety of issues.
Middleton, a member of the history department faculty, came to MSU earlier this year from North Carolina State University. A South Carolina native and Miami University doctoral graduate, he is the author of four books on race and law.
Still under development, the cross-disciplinary academic program he leads in the College of Arts and Sciences includes courses in history, literature, politics, race relations, and the arts.
For more information, telephone 662-325-2646 or visit http://www.aas.msstate.edu/.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.