Patricia A. Turner (left), a national expert on rumors and race in America, will address issues at the core of individual and public perceptions of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in a speech Aug. 29 at 4:30 p.m. in Room 265 of Park Hall.
The event is open free to the public.
Her address, “Rumors, Race and Hurricane Katrina” will draw on her expertise in folklore and popular culture.
Turner is a professor in the African-American and African Studies/American Studies Program and vice provost for undergraduate studies at the University of California, Davis. She has written three books: I Heard It Through the Grapevine: Rumor in African-American Culture (1993); Ceramic Uncles and Celluloid Mammies: Black Images and Their Influence on Culture (1994); and Whispers on the Color Line: Rumor and Race in America (2001), written with Gary Alan Fine (former head of the department of sociology at UGA).
The event is sponsored by the department of English, the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts and the Folklore Studies Group.
