WSU students, faculty, and staff, and the community are invited to attend the Common Reading Invited Lecture at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, Tuesday, Dec. 1, in Beasley Coliseum.
The special guest speaker is the author of this year’s award-winning Common Reading book, “Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption,” Bryan Stevenson.
Bring your copy of “Just Mercy” as a book signing on the Beasley Concourse will follow the lecture and Q&A session.
Mr. Stevenson is an acclaimed social-justice activist who:
- has won relief for dozens of condemned prisoners
- has argued five times before the U.S. Supreme Court
- is one of “Time” magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” of 2015
- founded and is executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative
- has raised funds to end the practice of incarcerating children in adult jails and prisoners
- is a professor of law at New York University Law School
His awards include the:
- MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant
- Gruber Justice Prize
- Andrew Carnegie Medal of Excellence in Nonfiction for “Just Mercy”
The WSU Common Reading Program is the center for information and programming around topics contained in a single book used by thousands of students in classrooms and highlighted in extracurricular programming in residence halls, expert lectures, and events. Since the program began nine years ago, more than 30,000 WSU students have benefitted from the academic discourse and resources associated with the selected books.
