Dr. Kathleen Wickham, associate professor at the Meek School of Journalism and New Media, and Larry Wells, director of Yoknapatawpha Press, lectured at Rennes University in Rennes, France, and the Sorbonne University of Paris on March 15 and 17.
Wickham’s lecture about reporters who covered the 1962 integration crisis over the admission of James Meredith focused on Agence France-Presse reporter Paul Guihard, a native of Brittany, France, killed during the riot. His unsolved murder forged an enduring link between Brittany and Mississippi.
Wells presented slides from Ed Meek’s photo-history, Riot: Witness to Anger and Change, co-published last fall by Yoknapatawpha Press and the Meek School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi.
Alain Guihard, the brother of Paul Guihard, spoke to Rennes University students and faculty. Hosting the Rennes event was Professor Nicole Moulinoux, founder of the William Faulkner Foundation, and Professor Gildas Levoguer of the English Department.
At Nouvelle Sorbonne University, Wickham and Wells addressed students of African American Studies under Professors Hélène Le Dantec-Lowry and James Cohen.
At Rennes University, the distinction of Honorary Fellow of the William Faulkner Foundation was presented to Larry Wells with U.S. Consul Sara Harriger attending.