Henry M. Loud Lecture

“Laura Smith Haviland  and the Relevance of the Underground Railroad Today”

2015 Wesley Foundation at University of Michigan
Henry M. Loud Lecture
Professor Tiya Miles

Sunday, September 20, 4:00pm
In the sanctuary of First United Methodist Church
120 S. State Street at Washington

Professor Tiya Miles was awarded a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2011. From the grant Miles was able to write her most recent novel, “Cherokee Rose,” which is receiving rave reviews, including the March 22, 2015 edition of the Detroit Free Press and the April 1, 2015 edition of the Library Journal. Her nonfiction books—”The House on Diamond Hill: A Cherokee Plantation Story” (UNC Press, 2010) and “Ties That Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom” (University of California Press, 2005)—received numerous awards.

Tiya Miles received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, an M.A. from Emory University, and an A.B. from Harvard University. Currently, she is a distinguished professor of American Culture, History, Afro-American and African Studies, and Native American Studies at the University of Michigan, and a member of  the First United Methodist Church,  Ann Arbor.

About the Loud Lectureship…

Lumberman, Au Sable mayor (president of Bay View near Petoskey), and licensed lay Methodist preacher, Henry Martin Loud endowed the Loud Lectureship at Wesley in 1897.   This was just one year after the Wesleyan Guild (later Wesley Foundation) incorporated.   Hundreds of theologians, bishops, scholars, activists, and writers have spoken at the since that time.  
In the early years, bishops, governors, congress members, senators, and ambassadors gave the lectures.  Throughout the 20th century, Loud Lecturers have  included William Jennings Bryan of Scopes “Monkey Trial” fame, Walter Rauschenbusch, known for the Social Gospel, non-violence scholar Gene Sharp of Harvard, and Black Liberation Theologian James Cone.  Recent lecturers have included Matthew Fox, Shane Claiborne, John Bell, James Lawson, and in 2104 Terry Wildman (on Native American issues & Biblical theology).