The Donald L. Fowler Endowed Political Science Lecture

Fire & Food: The Plating of Public Knowledge about Protests
We are pleased to welcome Dr. Danielle K. Brown as our speaker for the Donald L. Fowler Endowed Political Science Lecture at the Hollings Reading Room at the Thomas Cooper Library on March 6, 2026.

In her lecture titled, Fire & Food: The Plating of Public Knowledge about Protests, Dr. Danielle Brown (Michigan State University) will honor the legacy of Dr. Donald L. Fowler’s teaching and civic engagement by sharing her own expert research on how the media represents social activism through narrative, framing, and visual representation, as well as the intersection of journalistic coverage and social activism. She will also preview research in early stages regarding the role of food in social movements and protest politics.

This event is sponsored by the Department of Political Science, the Department of African American Studies, and the Center for American Civic Leadership and Public Discourse in the McCausland College of Arts and Sciences, University Libraries, and the College of Information and Communications.

Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. The program will begin promptly at 6:30 p.m. This event is free and open to the public; however, pre-registration is recommended.

About the Speaker

Danielle Brown, Ph.D., is the 1855 Community and Urban Journalism Professor and an associate professor in the Michigan State University School of Journalism. She is also the founding director of the LIFT Project -- an engaged research effort aimed at developing the quality of information pipelines of vulnerable communities, most notably through the identification and support of trusted messengers. Dr. Brown has published dozens of articles in top-tier journals, and her work also appears in popular media outlets like the Washington Post, Nieman Lab, Columbia Journalism Review and The Conversation. She has received multiple awards and recognitions for her research and service record as an early-career scholar and her pioneering public engagement work. She previously served on the faculty at the University of Minnesota and Indiana University. Prior to joining the academy, she was a photojournalist, writer, and later a non-profit public relations professional.

About The Fowler Lecture

The Donald L. Fowler Endowed Political Science Lecture Series is supported by the Donald L. Fowler Endowment Fund. The fund and lecture series honor the legacies of Dr. Fowler, a beloved professor at USC for over 50 years, and an important figure in the politics of South Carolina and beyond. In his political life, Dr. Fowler was known for his support of civic engagement and political mobilization, holding influential positions that included National Chair of the Democratic Party during the 1996 presidential election. During his time at USC Dr. Fowler educated several generations of South Carolina’s citizenry, including many of its public officials. These lectures serve to maintain an ongoing conversation on politics and political engagement to keep USC at the forefront of contemporary issues and events, as Dr. Fowler did for so many years.

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