USGA Executive Director John Marszalek and his wife, Jeanne, have been strong supporters of Mississippi State University Libraries. Fourteen years ago, the Marszaleks approached Frances Coleman, Dean of MSU Libraries, with the idea of creating fund to donate history related materials to the library’s collection each year. Dean Coleman suggested that in addition to the purchased materials, the library should bring in a speaker each year and work with the history department, where graduate students could apply to present their work. The John F. and Jeanne A. Marszalek Library Fund & Lecture Series made its debut in the spring of 2003. This year’s event, the 14th lecture in the series, was held at MSU Wednesday, March 23 in Mitchell Memorial Library's John Grisham Room.
The 2016 Marszalek Lecture speaker was author and USGA member Dr. Edwina S. Campbell. Dr. Campbell is a former U.S. Foreign Service officer who worked on several presidential visits and summit meetings during her years with the Department of State. After leaving the diplomatic service, she taught American foreign policy at the University of Virginia, was a professor of grand strategy at National Defense University, and retired in 2014 as a professor of national security studies at Air University. Since 1985 she has been a frequent practitioner of public diplomacy for the U.S. Information Agency and the Department of State. Campbell’s numerous publications include Germany’s Past and Europe’s Future: The Challenges of West German Foreign Policy and The Relevance of American Power: The Anglo-American Past and the Euro-Atlantic Future. Dr. Campbell spoke on her forthcoming book, Citizen of a Wider Commonwealth: Ulysses S. Grant's Post Presidential Diplomacy, published by Southern Illinois University Press. The hardback edition is currently available from all major booksellers.
Ryan Lawrence, a senior at MSU, presented his paper entitled “Mutual Misunderstandings: A Study on Ida Honoré Grant’s Austrian Experience.” The 2016 Marszalek Lecture Series student essay winner’s work centers on the transnational interactions and cultural interpretations between Ida Grant and the Austrian aristocracy during Fred Grant’s appointment as minister to Austria from 1889 until 1893. The collection of Ida Honoré Grant’s letters, donated to the Grant Library by Ulysses Dietz, were invaluable to the completion of this paper.
For more information on MSU Libraries, the Marszalek Lecture Series, and the upcoming lecture, please visit http://library.msstate.edu/Marszalek.
About the MSU Libraries:
Mississippi State University Libraries is a premier research library providing its communities of users an ongoing, creative, technologically advanced library program that provides new and emerging technologies; enhances and inspires teaching, research, and service of the highest caliber in an environment of free and open inquiry and with a commitment to excellence. For more information about MSU Libraries, please visit http://library.msstate.edu/.
Submitted by
Brad Moreland
Co-chair, Public Relations Committee
Mitchell Memorial Library
Mississippi State University
