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MC Presents Annual Distinguished Lecture Series


Deborah Trott Pierce, who left Mississippi College to head up an international education program in Missouri, will return to the Clinton campus Thursday, Oct. 25, to speak at a fall lecture series.

Pierce, who grew up in Brazil as the daughter of Southern Baptist missionaries, will be the speaker at the 2007 Arts & Sciences Distinguished Lecture. The event will begin at 7 p.m. in the Jean Pittman Williams Recital Hall in Aven Hall.

Her topic will be "Life and Literature: Reflections on a Homecoming Journey." A reception will follow in the Aven lobby.

The series has been held annually since 1988 for MC faculty to recognize one of their peers in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Pierce "has energetically led in the creation and growth of international study and travel abroad programs," said Gary K. Mayfield, interim dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. Such programs have "enhanced the global perspective of many generations of Mississippi College students," he said.

Pierce left MC in August to become director of the Center for International Education at Webster University in St. Louis, Mo. She coordinates with the university's campuses in England, the Netherlands, Thailand, China, Japan, Austria and Switzerland. Joining the MC faculty in 1979, Pierce was a professor and chair of the Department of Foreign Languages.

Pierce received her undergraduate degree in modern languages from MC, her master's in French and Spanish from Mississippi State University and doctorate in French and Spanish from Louisiana State University. She was MC's Student Body Association Professor of the Year in 2004.

The public is invited and the event is free.

For additional details, contact Gary Mayfield at Mayfield@mc.edu