TAMIU Reading The Globe Program Hosts Drive-In Lecture Featuring Author Colin Broderick
Texas A&M International University’s (TAMIU) Reading the Globe Program annual lecture is being presented a little differently this year.
A drive-in lecture, the first of its kind, is slated for Thursday, Oct. 1 at 8 p.m. at the Senator Judith Zaffirini Student Success Center parking lot. Admission is free and open to currently enrolled TAMIU students, faculty and staff. To sign up, visit https://go.tamiu.edu/rtg-drivein.
An additional online lecture for the public will take place on Saturday, Oct. 3 at 10:30 a.m. via Webex. Participants are encouraged to log-in and visit https://go.tamiu.edu/readingtheglobe2020 on the morning of the lecture.
Author and guest lecturer for the event is Colin Broderick, whose novel, “That’s That: A Memoir,” serves as this year’s University Common Read. In his memoir, Broderick unravels the first 20 years of his life growing up in Northern Ireland throughout the 1970s-80s. It is through this coming-of-age story that Broderick delivers a personal account of his life in a period of heightened tension and violence known historically as The Troubles.
Broderick, whose work is primarily biographical, often explores Irish and Irish American identity. His work has appeared in The Irish Times, The New York Times, Poets and Writers, Writers Digest and numerous other literary journals.
His first feature movie, Emerald City, which he wrote, directed and acted in, won numerous awards, including the Audience Award at the Manhattan Film Festival 2017. In 2019, he published his third book, "The Writing Irish of New York,” which serves as an anthology of Irish and Irish-American writers in the United States.
His latest film, "A Bend in the River" which he wrote and directed, was slated to premiere at the Belfast Film Festival in April 2020, but was postponed. Currently, he is working on his first fictional novel, “Church End.”
The drive-in lecture is one of the unique ways University programming has been modified to adjust to the required CDC guidelines currently in place regarding social distancing. Other notable events include a virtual Alumni Association event celebrating the University’s 50th anniversary, virtual Welcome Week activities, a student-led Voter Registration drive-thru, Facebook Live concert performance, and more.
For more information on the upcoming Reading the Globe Drive-In Lecture, visit www.tamiu.edu/spotlight/events.shtml or contact Dr. Hayley Kazen, University College associate professional at 956.326.2134 or via email at hkazen@tamiu.edu.
Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) is one of the 11 university members of The Texas A&M University System. A primarily Hispanic-serving, State-assisted university founded in 1970, its 300-acre campus is located in northeast Laredo, Texas on former ranchland.
Home to 8,500 students from around the world, TAMIU offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees in the arts and sciences, business, education and nursing. As its name affirms, TAMIU maintains a special focus on developing an international academic agenda for the State of Texas.
U.S. News and World Report’s 2020 Edition of its popular Best Colleges guide ranks TAMIU as the second highest-ranked Texas public university in its Best Regional Universities West category and the highest-ranked regional campus of The Texas A&M University System.
TAMIU is also ranked second in the nation and first in Texas for having the lowest student debt, on average $3,477 in loans. TAMIU also ranks 5th in the nation among the 100 Most Affordable Public Schools with the Highest Return on Investment according to ranking authority Great Value Colleges.
Additional information is available at http://www.tamiu.edu
