Posted on Friday, April 05, 2019
Dr. Karen Piper, an award-winning author of “The Price of Thirst,” “Left in the Dust” and “Cartographic Fictions,” will deliver the annual Jennie Epps Lecture at 11:15 a.m. April 11 in Dickson Assembly Room.
Dr. Piper writes climate fiction, a new term for books in which the effects of climate change and global warming are part of the plot. “The Price of Thirst” won the Next Generation Indie Book Award for 2014.
She earned a master’s degree in environmental studies and a doctorate in comparative literature from the University of Oregon. Dr. Piper has also received Sierra magazine’s nature writing award, a National Endowment of the Humanities Award, a Huntington Fellowship, a Carnegie Mellon Fellowship and a Sitka Center residency. She is a professor of literature of geography at the University of Missouri.
She grew up on the Naval Air Weapons Station at China Lake, a Mojave desert outpost in California, where her father worked on the Sidewinder and other weaponry. Her experiences there inspired “A Girl’s Guide to Missiles: Growing Up in America’s Secret Desert.”
Dr. Patricia Marchesi, Assistant Professor of English, said Piper was selected for this year’s lecture because she offers an interesting perspective for students.
“I watched her give the keynote speaker at the Midwest Modern Language Association,” Dr. Marchesi said. “I was impressed with her insights about this complex and thought-provoking topic (climate change).”
Although Dr. Piper has received impressive awards for her own writing (literary journalism, memoir, etc.), she will be speaking primarily in her Epps lecture about the genre of climate change fiction, which she teaches as professor of literature and geography at the University of Missouri.”
Dr. Piper’s research focuses on globalization and the rhetoric of “development,” particularly in relation to water infrastructure and environmental issues.
She has done work in Iraq, Chile, Egypt, Turkey, India and elsewhere, supported by the NEH, Carnegie Mellon and MU. She teaches contemporary world literature and postcolonial history, as well as climate change fiction, literary journalism and other courses. Her work in literary journalism and creative writing has led to an UCLA poetry exhibition and numerous articles in Places magazine. She is a featured speaker at the Summit Series in Eden, Utah.
Funded through an endowment established by R. Dean and Grace H. Boswell ’49, the Epps Lecture honors the late Dr. Jennie Lee Epps, who taught in the LaGrange College Department of English from 1931 until her death in 1961.
Pamela Tremblay represented LaGrange College at the 30th Global Summit on Positive Psychology, Mindfulness and Psychotherapy along with such universities as Yale and George Washington. She spoke about the importance of taking an integrative approach when working with college students who have anxiety and depression.
Senior Political Science Major Brandon Collins is interning with Rep. Drew Ferguson in Washington, D.C., as part of the Capitol Hill Internship Program.
Save the date for this year’s Sustainability Fair, to be held April 18. More details next week.
Tuesday
Thursday
Friday
LC alumni, remember how special your days on the Hill were? How you had professors who cared and classmates who became family? Consider giving back and helping students through donor-funded scholarships and campus resources. Help reach this year’s goal of 1,100 alumni by making a gift before June 30. Any amount helps.
Baseball
The 20th-ranked Panthers (22-8) split two games with visiting Millsaps on Wednesday. LC won the first game 5-0 before Millsaps took the second game 7-5. McKinley Erves had four hits, scored four runs in the doubleheader. Trey Pearce had three RBIs in the second game.
Softball
LC (7-11, 3-7 USA South) split a USA South doubleheader Monday with visiting Agnes Scott. The Panthers came back from a 13-1 loss in the first game to win the second, 8-0. Haley Coleman threw a three-hit shutout in the second game.
Golf
The No. 15 LaGrange golf team finished 10th at the Wynlakes Invitational, played at the Wynlakes Country Club in Montgomery, Alabama. Freshman Mathias Andersen and sophomore Sam Rogers tied for 29th in the individual standings.
Friday, April 5
Saturday, April 6
Tuesday, April 9
Wednesday, April 10
3 - Justin Muller
6 – Tracy Riggs
Jacob Wise
7 – Dawn Coker
John Hughes
19 – Dottie Joiner
20- David Wiggins
21 – Sandra Blair
24 – Ryan Dickson
Panthers riding high – LaGrange Daily News, March 25, 2019
LaGrange native speaks on time in Casablanca – LaGrange Daily News, March 25, 2019
LaGrange students curate art exhibit – LaGrange Daily News, March 26, 2019
Mason awarded LaGrange College scholarship – St. Clair News-Aegis (Pell City, Alabama), April 2, 2019
Burdettes to lead Sweet Land of Liberty Parade – LaGrange Daily News, March 29, 2019
Panthers win conference series – LaGrange Daily News, April 1, 2019
Category: Academics, Global engagement
Keywords: climate, epps, birthdays
