KU’s Hall Center releases 2018-2019 Humanities Lecture Series lineup

photo by: Sara Shepherd

The Hall Center for the Humanities, 900 Sunnyside Ave. on the University of Kansas campus.

Celebrated authors Neil Gaiman and Jesmyn Ward are among the lineup of writers, journalists and academics slated to visit the University of Kansas as part of the 2018-2019 Humanities Lecture Series.

Founded in 1947, the series is the oldest continuing program of its kind at KU. Previous Humanities Lecture Series scholars have included authors Salman Rushdie and Junot Díaz, actress and playwright Anna Deavere Smith, poets Nikky Finney and Terrance Hayes, and legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin.

KU’s Hall Center for the Humanities announced the upcoming speakers earlier this week. All events in the series are free and open to the public. Here’s the complete schedule:

Maria Hinojosa, “Frontline: Latinos and Immigration from a Woman’s Perspective”

7:30 p.m. Sept. 25, The Commons at Spooner Hall, 1340 Jayhawk Blvd.

Hinojosa, the first speaker in the series, is a four-time Emmy-winning news anchor and journalist. In addition to her work as executive producer of NPR’s “Latinos USA” and the PBS program “America by the Numbers with Maria Hinojosa,” she has also made frequent guest appearances on MSNBC and “CBS Sunday Morning,” in addition to writing two books. Her many honors include the John Chancellor Award, the Studs Terkel Community Media Award, two Robert F. Kennedy Awards, the Edward R. Murrow Award, and the Ruben Salazar Lifetime Achievement Award.

Marie Grace Brown, “Body Movements: Positioning Sudanese Women in an Age of Empire”

7:30 p.m. Oct. 25, Lied Center Pavilion, 1600 Stewart Drive

Brown, an assistant professor of history at the University of Kansas and a cultural historian of the modern Middle East, specializes in questions of “gender, empire, and the body as historical text,” according to KU’s press release for the lecture series. Brown is the author of “Khartoum at Night: Fashion and Body Politics in Imperial Sudan.” Her second book-length project, “Sex on the Edge: Adventures in Romance in Imperial Spain,” continues Brown’s earlier exploration of the relationship between bodies and imperial power.

Neil Gaiman, “An Evening with Neil Gaiman”

7:30 p.m. Nov. 19, Lied Center, 1600 Stewart Drive

Neil Gaiman is the award-winning author of several popular titles, among them “American Gods,” “The Graveyard Book,” “Coraline” and “The Sandman” comic book series. Gaiman’s multiple honors include Newbery and Carnegie medals, along with a slew of awards for fantasy and horror writing.

Walter Mosley, “Political Optimism in the Age of Trump”

7:30 p.m. Feb. 7, 2019, Kansas Memorial Union ballroom, 1301 Jayhawk Blvd.

Perhaps best known for his “Easy Rawlins” detective series, Walter Mosley is the author of more than 50 books, from crime novels to political essays to science fiction. Mosley, the first African-American to serve on the board of directors for the National Book Awards, has received many honors throughout his career, including an O’Henry Award, a Grammy and two NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Literary Work.

Jesmyn Ward, “An Evening with Jesmyn Ward”

April 11, 2019, Liberty Hall, 644 Massachusetts St. (time TBA)

Jesmyn Ward is a 2017 MacArthur Genius Award recipient and the first woman to win two National Book Awards for fiction, for her 2011 novel “Salvage the Bones” and last year’s “Sing, Unburied, Sing.” A Mississippi native, Ward currently serves as an associate professor of English at Tulane University.