Jacksonville – Life at MacMurray College will be a little bit different…and better… in the new academic year.

     The College is initiating a new, annual speakers’ series, “Making A Change (MAC): Ideas, Events, and People that Shape the World.” The series focuses on contemporary issues and events that are relevant and influential in understanding today’s world.

      In its inaugural year, the series will include a wide range of speakers, from Dan Renzi of MTV fame, to Mary Lightfine, a leader in the international humanitarian movements such as Doctors Without Borders and the International Medical Corps.

     Each month the College will offer a lecture in the series, including presentations by selected MacMurray faculty members who will speak about their current research interests and projects. In addition, the series will include a “Community Issues” presentation that will focus on issues pertinent to Jacksonville and surrounding communities. This year, the “Community Issues” series will focus on immigration, with a panel of politicians, community activists, and scholars.

     The first presentation in the new MAC Series will be by Dr. Jill Compton, Assistant Professor of Psychology, who will present “The Other “F” Word: The Relationship between Feminism and Psychology.”

     Dr. Compton’s lecture will be September 7th, 7:30 p.m., in the Thoresen Recital Hall of the Springer Center for Music on the MacMurray College campus.

     “The topic of feminist psychology is not often discussed in mainstream psychology and rarely covered in undergraduate psychology courses,” says Dr. Compton. “In this lecture, I will provide attendees with information regarding this often-overlooked psychological perspective. “ The lecture will include a summary of basic feminist principles and their application to psychological research, ethics, and therapeutic practice.

     Dr. Compton received her Ph.D. in psychology with a concentration in experimental psychology from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tenn. She graduated with a B.A. in psychology and liberal studies from Maryville University of St. Louis in 1999.

     From the fall of 2000 until the summer of 2004, Dr. Compton taught part-time as an instructor at the University of Tennessee while working on her Ph.D. She taught both Psychology and Women’s Studies courses and came to MacMurray in the fall of 2004 as an instructor. With the completion of her degree, she was promoted to Assistant Professor of Psychology.

     Other programs and topics will include:

• Oct. 5: Dr. Mark Largent, “The Blair Lecture”; Michigan State University professor; writer and editor of the ABC-CLIO series, “Science and Society”;
• Nov. 1: Mary Lightfine, “Nurses Without Boundaries”; a seasoned veteran of the Nobel Prize-winning organization, Doctors Without Borders; Ms. Lightfine helps audiences understand other cultures by thinking from their perspective and draws on her years of experience working and living in places like Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Somalia, Nicaragua, Sudan and Macedonia.
• Dec. 7: Prof. Khara Koffel, “Speaking in Tongues: Contemporary Sculpture as a Mode of Communication”

     All presentations are open to the public. For more information on the series, go to www.mac.edu or contact the Office of Public Relations, 217-479-7028.