Langston Hughes visiting professor to present lecture on civil rights movement

LAWRENCE — David G. Holmes, the spring 2013 Langston Hughes Visiting Professor, will present “Occupy This: Political Representation, Prophetic Voices, Popular Culture and the Contested Rhetorical Legacies of the Civil Rights Movement” at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 9, in the Kansas Room of the Kansas Union. The lecture is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.

Holmes is professor of English and director of African-American studies at Pepperdine University.

The Langston Hughes Visiting Professorship was established at the University of Kansas in 1977 in honor of the African-American poet, playwright and fiction writer who lived in Lawrence from 1903 to 1916. The professorship brings a prominent or emerging minority scholar to KU for one semester each year.

Holmes is serving as a visiting professor in the Department of English. He is the author of "Revisiting Racialized Voice: African-American Ethos in Language and Literature." His current interests include African-American expressive culture, political rhetoric, political theology, religious rhetoric and rhetorics of racism. He has been at Pepperdine since 1993.

Holmes is teaching one undergraduate course on fiction, film and music about the civil rights movement and a graduate seminar exploring a few of the contemporary rhetorical, religious, political and pedagogical implications of the civil rights movements. 

More information on the Langston Hughes Visiting Professorship, including a complete list of past recipients, is available online.