Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Lecture

Birmingham-Southern College will host Nora Naranjo Morse, an award-winning sculptor, writer, and producer of film that looks at the continuing social changes within Pueblo Indian culture as part of this year’s Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Program.

Her talk “Pueblo Women and Clay” will be held in the Norton Campus Center Theatre. The talk will focus on some of the most prolific and important clay workers of the Southwest. During Morse’s visit, which will extend through April 7, she will also engage with students and faculty in the college’s Harrison Honors Program and BSC art students and faculty.

A resident of Espanola, N.M., Morse is best known for her work with clay and organic materials. She has been trained in the Pueblo clay work tradition of the Southwest. Her installations and large-scale public art speak to environmental, cultural, and social practice issues. Beyond New Mexico, her work can be seen at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

She received her bachelor’s degree from the College of Santa Fe and is the recipient of an honorary degree from Skidmore College. In 2014, Morse was awarded a Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Artist fellowship. She is the author of a poetry collection, Mud Woman: Poems from the Clay, and a children’s book, Kaa Povi.

Since 1956, the Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Program has offered undergraduates the opportunity to spend time with some of America’s most distinguished scholars. The program contributes to the intellectual life on the campus by making possible an exchange of ideas between the Visiting Scholars and the resident faculty and students.

Founded in 1776, Phi Beta Kappa is the nation’s oldest academic honor society. It has chapters at 286 colleges and universities, and more than 600,000 members. BSC is a sheltering institution for one of three PBK chapters in Alabama.