The University of Alabama Graduate School will host its seventh annual Last Lecture Series on April 22, in which students nominate a UA faculty member as the featured lecturer to address the premise of “If this were your last time to address a group of students, what would you say to them?”
Nomination forms extend until Wednesday, Feb. 13. The announced winner, selected by a student committee consisting of graduate and undergraduate students representing a range of the UA student population, will receive a cash award from the UA Graduate School in addition to presenting their lecture.
Rick Bragg, the 2012 Last Lecture recipient, said he was tickled when the UA Graduate School selected him to give the lecture and first notified his wife of the news.
In addition to teaching a magazine writing course in the College of Communication and Information Sciences, Bragg has published several books and articles, and won awards such as the Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing in 1996, the Harper Lee Award and the Clarence Cason Award for Nonfiction Writing. Bragg was also a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.
Bragg said it was a great honor to be chosen for this lecture because the entire process was student run.
“How could you not be gratified or find value in the fact that the award was given by the students themselves?” he asked.
Even with the audience feeling numb in their hard seats and sweating in a room filled to max capacity, Bragg said he enjoyed talking to the students, faculty, staff and alumni and that it was great to see people from the community come out to the lecture.
Sheldon Martin, a junior majoring in public relations, said she had to get to the lecture early to hear Bragg speak.
“I was able to get a really good seat,” Martin said. “Even though it was hard to concentrate because of the temperature in the room, I got a lot of great advice out of his lecture.”
Even though Bragg said speaking for the Last Lecture was different from his other lectures, Bragg kept his tradition of not writing his speeches down.
“You box yourself in,” Bragg said. “Preparing for this lecture, I didn’t write a speech; however, there was something different about the fact that students put it on that made me have fun with it.”
Bragg said it was a real pleasure and described this honor as the “Genesis of the award.”
“I think whoever wins the next lecture, my advice to them would be to remember that at least one student thought so much as to nominate them in the first place,” Bragg said. “There’s a lot of smart people on campus, and I’d like to learn and hear more about them.”
Bebe Barefoot, the 2011 Last Lecture recipient, said if she could give any piece of advice or encouraging words to the next recipient, it would be to speak from the heart.
“I believe that we are all both teachers and students, and to put that belief into practice you have to get out of your head and make it about your heart,” Barefoot said.
In reflecting on her lecture two years ago, Barefoot said the feedback she received from people was overwhelmingly positive.
“I approached the speech as a personal essay, so I made myself rather vulnerable,” Barefoot said. “That’s always scary, and I was so touched by the many kind words I received not only immediately afterward but in the weeks and months that followed.”
Barefoot said this award was the most special honor she has ever received because it came from the students.
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