MTSU Mondays: Women’s history month, Shabazz keynote, top faculty award

Here's the latest news from Middle Tennessee State University.

Women’s History Month focuses on ‘Women Stories’

An Emmy-winning broadcaster and humorist who’s brought joy, thought-provoking commentary, and plenty of fascinating stories to Sunday mornings for two decades will help celebrate its storytellers for National Women’s History Month.

Nancy Giles, a contributor to “CBS Sunday Mornings” since 2002, is scheduled to make the keynote address Thursday, March 23, at 6 p.m. in the second-floor ballroom of Student Union, 1768 MTSU Blvd.

That same night, starting at 8 p.m. in the same location, social media personality and comedian Brittany Broski will tell her own stories of daring to be a woman working in the entertainment industry.

Giles examines topics ranging from politics and race to pop culture and body image with her unique blend of common-sense wisdom, laugh-out-loud humor, social and political commentary, and interviews. Broski, who emerged as a TikTok celebrity — and became a classic meme with her “NOPE …. well, maybe” reaction to kombucha — in 2019, has turned her humor into a full-time career.

A complete calendar of 2023 National Women’s History Month events at MTSU is available at bit.ly/MTWomensHistory2023Calendar. More information on the programs is available at mtsu.edu/jac/nwhm.php.

For more information and for updates on 2023 National Women’s History Month events at MTSU, contact Maigan Wipfli, director of MTSU’s June Anderson Center for Women and Nontraditional Students, at 615-898-2193 or maigan.wipfli@mtsu.edu.

Author-educator Shabazz focuses on education, unity at keynote

Award-winning author and educator Ilyasah Shabazz closed out Black History Month events on Feb. 27 with her wide-ranging keynote address, discussing her parents’ legacy, the power of unity, and the importance of education as “the key to understanding.”

Shabazz, daughter of the late Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz as well as a producer and activist, shared the story of her father telling his favorite teacher at age 13 that he wanted to be a lawyer. His teacher told him that it wasn’t a realistic goal for an “n-word.”

“When young people are at a crossroads, they need educators who are willing to guide them,” Shabazz told an attentive audience in Student Union ballroom. “When we tell students what they can’t do, we create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“There is no ‘American history’ unless each and every voice is heard on the pages of those textbooks.”

2023 Pleas Award recipient: 'Teaching as an act of social justice’

For Health and Human Performance professor Chandra Russell Story, her faith “is the cornerstone of who I am and everything that I do, and I’ll ever be.”

Story is the 2023 recipient of the John Pleas Faculty Recognition Award, the highest honor for Black faculty on campus. She is licensed minister at First Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, and an accomplished scholar in the field of public health.

Story was presented her award during a special ceremony on Feb. 21 at the MT Center inside the Sam Ingram Building. The special plaque is bestowed annually during Black History Month in honor of acclaimed psychology Professor Emeritus John Pleas, and for the first time this year included a $3,000 cash award.

“I turned to teaching as an act of social justice. I wanted to share with students the things that I had learned and the things I had seen in three or four different states,” she said. Story concluded her remarks with a fitting quote from King that served as a challenge to all in attendance: “Life’s most persistent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”

Army Reserve general visits, meets with ROTC cadets

One of the Army Reserve’s newest commanding generals, Maj. Gen. Bob D. Harter, visited the university as his first visit to a higher education institution since assuming his new duties.

Harter, commanding general of the 81^st Readiness Division at Fort Jackson, SC, toured the Army ROTC detachment and the Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center on Feb. 15. The general began his tour with a brief ceremony at the university’s Veterans Memorial, where university officials unveiled an engraved brick commemorating his visit. He also shared mentoring advice with cadets.

“We've been a nation at war since before some of these cadets were born, and still these young men and women chose to raise their right hand and serve their country,” said Harter, who has led reserve operations in the southeastern U.S. since last September.

“I'm honored to come and speak to young people who embody that type of bravery and initiative.”

Harter was invited by Army Reserve Ambassador Andrew Oppmann, the university’s vice president for marketing and communications. Two other of the state’s civilian ambassadors — John Dyess of Franklin, Tennessee, and Travis Burchett of Chapmansboro, Tennessee — also participated.

MTSU Mondays content is provided by submissions from MTSU News and Media Relations.

This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: MTSU Mondays: Women’s history month, Shabazz keynote, top faculty award