WHO: Melissa Harris-Perry, noted scholar and host of her own MSNBC current affairs program, will deliver the University of Rochester's 2013 Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Address. A celebration of King's life and the kick-off for Black History Month, the annual address is sponsored by the College Diversity Roundtable and the Office of the President.
PRESS OPPORTUNITY: Media availability with Harris-Perry will be held from 3 to 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 17, in the Frederick Douglass Leadership House, located on Wilson Boulevard on the Fraternity Quadrangle.
COMMEMORATIVE ADDRESS: 6 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 17, Strong Auditorium on the River Campus.
ABOUT MELISSA HARRIS-PERRY: In addition to her show, which airs from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays and Sundays on MSNBC, Melissa Harris-Perry is a professor of political science at Tulane University. At Tulane, she serves as the founding director of the Anna Julia Cooper Project on Gender, Race, and Politics in the South. She also writes the monthly column, Sister Citizen, for The Nation and provides commentary on Politics Nation with Reverend Al Sharpton, The Rachel Maddow Show, and The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell.
In 2009, Harris-Perry became the youngest scholar to deliver the W.E.B. Du Bois Lectures at Harvard University, and in the same year, became the youngest women to deliver the prestigious Ware Lecture. Harris-Perry received a bachelor's degree in English from Wake Forest University, a doctoral degree in political science from Duke University, and studied theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York. She also received an honorary doctorate from Meadville Lombard Theological School. She has served on the faculties of the University of Chicago and Princeton University.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Members of the media can check in with Melissa Greco Lopes by calling 585.260.6666 or e-mailing m.grecolopes@rochester.edu.