161 Location of the Michael Eric Dyson address will be the Alumni Memorial Gym

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Oct. 29, 2007
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina Logue, 615-898-5081

MEDIA ADVISORY

Editors: Please note that the location of the Michael Eric Dyson address will be the Alumni Memorial Gym, NOT the Tennessee Room of the James Union Building as originally stated. All other information is correct. Please make the appropriate corrections. We apologize for the inconvenience.

“HIP-HOP INTELLECTUAL” MICHAEL ERIC DYSON TO TALK AT MTSU
Nationally Acclaimed Author to Speak Out on Race, Religion, Rap and Rhetoric

(MURFREESBORO) – Author, academic, minister and commentator Michael Eric Dyson, known as “the hip-hop intellectual” among critics and fans, will speak at MTSU at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 31, in the Alumni Memorial Gym. His address, including a question-and-answer period, is free and open to the public.
Dyson, who has been named one of the 100 most influential black Americans by Ebony magazine, was appointed a University Professor at Georgetown University earlier this year. He teaches classes in English, theology and African-American Studies.
He is the author of 15 books, including Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster; Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind?; and his latest, Know What I Mean?, an examination of hip-hop music with an introduction by Jay-Z.
In an Oct. 5 speech at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Dyson described singer Kanye West as the ultimate gangster for speaking out against President George W. Bush following Hurricane Katrina, reports the Oct. 8 edition of UKMC’s University News.
Prior to joining Georgetown earlier this year, Dyson was the Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He also has taught at DePaul, Chicago Theological Seminary, the University of North Carolina, Columbia and Brown. His resume includes pastoral and ministerial work at several Baptist churches.
Dyson graduated magna cum laude from Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tenn., with a bachelor’s degree in 1982, received a master’s degree from Princeton University in 1991, and earned his doctorate from Princeton in 1993.
A frequent guest on radio and television talk shows, Dyson’s appearances include “The Charlie Rose Show,” “Oprah,” “Real Time with Bill Maher” on Home Box Office, Cable News Network and National Public Radio.
Dyson’s appearance at MTSU is co-sponsored by the Black History Month Committee and the Office of Intercultural and Diversity Affairs (IDA).
“Dr. Dyson is an intellectual leader in the Academy and society on media, race and politics,” Luther Buie, interim director of IDA and co-chair of the Black History Month Committee, says. “We look forward to his insights.”
"It is truly an honor to have Dr. Michael Eric Dyson come to MTSU,” says Dr. Sekou Franklin, assistant professor of political science and co-chair of the Black History Month Committee. “His scholarship and vigorous activism have made him one of the nation's most important intellectuals and commentators on how race and class intersect with politics and culture."
“This is really a student-driven event,” says Buie. “We’re starting with the desires of the students and seeing a real spirit of collaboration among academic departments, Intercultural and Diversity Affairs and student organizations.”
Buie says special thanks are due to the Collegiate 100, the student chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the African-American Women’s Council and the African-American Students Association.


--30--

ATTENTION, MEDIA: For a jpeg photograph of Michael Eric Dyson, contact Gina Logue in the Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-5081 or gklogue@mtsu.edu.