USM Honors College Leader Addresses Mississippi College Lecture Series

David Davies

David Davies, dean of the University of Southern Mississippi Honors College, will headline an upcoming Mississippi College lecture series.

A Malvern, Arkansas native, Davies is booked for the MC Department of Communication’s Purser Hewitt Lecture Series named for the former “Clarion-Ledger” editor. During his March 4-5 visit to the Clinton campus, the former Arkansas reporter will speak to all journalism classes on the Clinton campus and address a luncheon in his honor.

Davies began working at Southern Miss as a professor in 1991 and served as the adviser to the “Student Printz,” the university’s student newspaper.

During his tenure on the Hattiesburg campus, Davies served as chairman of the Journalism Department, interim director of the School of Mass Communication & Journalism and as associate dean of the College of Arts and Letters. He was serving as director of the University Forum (the Honors College speaker series) when the dean’s job opened up in 2007.

Davies oversees the 580 student-USM Honors College and all of its undergraduates have high school grade point averages of 3.5 or higher. Much of his time is spent recruiting students. He also is among the bloggers among the deans and faculty at Southern Miss.

Davies received a bachelor’s degree at the University of Arkansas, then spent a decade as a reporter in his native state before earning a master’s at Ohio State University. He received a doctorate at the University of Alabama.

In recent weeks, Davies has worked on a USM campus that’s seen its share of major news developments – from a powerful tornado touching down in Hattiesburg to the selection of a new university president, the first African-American named to that post in school history.

Dr. Davies is the latest in a lineup of all-star speakers coming to Mississippi College for the Purser Hewitt Lecture Series. Last year’s lecturer was longtime professor Douglas Starr, a veteran newsman in Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Others have included Clarion-Ledger editorial cartoonist Marshall Ramsey, who was twice a Pulitzer Prize finalist, award-winning Clarion-Ledger investigative reporter Jerry Mitchell, and University of Mississippi professor Charlie Mitchell, former editor of the Vicksburg newspaper.

For more information, contact MC Department of Communication professor Tim Nicholas at 601.925.3462 or tnichola@mc.edu.