FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Contact: Dave Wellman, Director of Communications (304) 696-7153
 

Pulitzer Prize-winning Dr. Julia Keller keynote speaker
 at Elizabeth Gibson Drinko Honors Convocation

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Dr. Julia Keller, a two-time Marshall University graduate and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Chicago Tribune, will be the keynote speaker at the Elizabeth Gibson Drinko Honors Convocation on Friday, April 4, in Marshall’s Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center on the Huntington campus.

The convocation, which is part of Marshall’s 14th annual Celebration of Academics, recognizes Marshall students participating in honors programs. It begins at 7 p.m.

The Celebration of Academics, sponsored by the Drinko Academy, also features the annual John Deaver Drinko Symposium, which takes place at 2 p.m. Thursday, April 3 in the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center. The featured speaker is Dr. Wendell Dobbs, who is the 2007-2008 Drinko Fellow. The John Marshall Fife and Drum Corps, started last year by Dobbs, will perform during the symposium.

Keller, a Huntington native, will speak on “The Meaning Of Home: How Origins Shape Our Thinking.” She currently is the Tribune’s cultural critic. In 2005, Keller won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing.

“I was born and raised in Huntington, and my earliest memories are of accompanying my father, the late James Keller, to Old Main on Saturdays, where he would pick up his paycheck,” Keller said. “He was a professor in Marshall’s mathematics department for almost two decades. Coming back to Marshall as an adult is very special to me. I’ll be talking about the meaning of home – not just the place we live, but the place that lives inside of us.”  

Keller earned a B.A. and M.A. in English from Marshall, and obtained a Ph.D. in English Literature at Ohio State University.

She began her journalism career as a reporting intern for nationally syndicated columnist Jack Anderson in Washington, D.C. Her first job was as a reporter and then editorial page editor at the Ashland (Ky.) Daily Independent. Later, she worked as television critic at the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch. She joined the Chicago Tribune in late 1998.

During the 1997-98 academic year, Keller was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, In the fall of 2006, she served as McGraw Professor of Writing at Princeton University. She has twice been a juror for the Pulitzer Prizes.

Keller has written a book called “Mr. Gatling’s Terrible Marvel: The Gun That Changed Everything and the Misunderstood Genius Who Invented It.” It explores the cultural role of multiple-firing weaponry in the 19th Century world. The book will be published by Viking May 29.

The Drinko Symposium gets the Celebration of Academics started on Thursday afternoon. Dobbs, a professor in Marshall’s music department, will speak on “Music of Revolution and Destiny.”

Dobbs and his wife, Linda, also a professor in Marshall’s music department, conceived the idea of forming the John Marshall Fife and Drum Corps in 2007. As the Drinko Fellow, Wendell Dobbs developed a schedule of events at which to display the corps.

Here are the John Marshall Fife and Drum Corps performances to date:

  • Sept. 3, 2007 – media event, Corps premiere, lawn in front of Old Main
  • Sept. 8, 2007 – pre-game show, Marshall-WVU football game at Marshall University
  • Sept. 15, 2007 – pre-game show, Marshall University
  • Sept. 17, 2007 – President’s home during John Marshall Celebration Week
  • Sept. 19, 2007 – John Marshall Celebration, Drinko Academy, Experimental Theater
  • Sept. 24, 2007 – rededication of Shockoe Hill Cemetery in Richmond, Va.
  • Sept. 24, 2007 – John Marshall House and Library of Virginia
  • Oct. 6, 2007 – Mountain State Forest Festival and Band Festival, Elkins, W.Va.
  • Oct. 27, 2007 – Marshall University Homecoming parade and pre-game show
  • Nov. 3, 2007 – Marshall University Band Festival
  • Dec. 1, 2007 – Charleston Christmas Parade, Charleston, W.Va.
  • Dec. 4, 2007 – Joyous Night, West Virginia State Capitol, Charleston, W.Va.
  • Jan. 26, 2008 – Marshall FluteWorks, Jomie Jazz Center
  • Feb. 5, 2008 – GOP Convention, Charleston, and West Virginia Senate
  • Feb. 29, 2008 – Marshall University Foundation Dinner, Edgewood Country Club, Charleston, W.Va.
  • March 17, 2008 – St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Columbus, Ohio

Dobbs said the John Deaver Drinko Academy’s mission to reinvigorate civic and political culture inspired the creation of the Corps.

“Forming the Corps has been an extraordinary experience,” he said. “The devotion of the students, watching the rise of leaders from within the Corps, the making of new friends at events on and off campus, and the support of colleagues at the university and in our community have been very gratifying.”

Here is the schedule for the 14th annual Celebration of Academics:

Thursday, April 3

2 p.m. – The Drinko Symposium, Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center; speaker: Dr. Wendell Dobbs; topic: “Music of Revolution and Destiny”

3 p.m. – Public reception, lobby of Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center

Friday, April 4

7 p.m. – The Elizabeth Gibson Drinko Honors Convocation, Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center; speaker: Dr. Julia Keller; topic: “The Meaning of Home: How Origins Shape our Thinking”

8:30 p.m. – Public reception, lobby of Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center

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