Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series
The Tanner Center has sponsored the Distinguished Faculty Lecture at Southern Utah University since 1981. The Lecture is selected each year by a Faculty Senate Committee.
2026 Distinguished Faculty Lecture
History Professor Dr. Michelle Orihel will present the 2026 Distinguished Faculty Lecture. Her presentation, "American Independence: Stories of Struggle, Freedom, and Resilience," is open to the public and will be given on February 12, 2026, at 11:30 a.m. in the Gilbert Great Hall of the Hunter Alumni Center.
Michelle Orihel is an associate professor of history at Southern Utah University. She earned her B.A. at Brock University, M.A. at Queen’s University, and a Ph.D. at Syracuse University in 2010. She teaches the survey course in American history as well as upper-division courses on colonial and revolutionary America, the early American republic, the history of American journalism, and the history of gender in early America. In recognition of her teaching accomplishments, Southern Utah University named her Outstanding Educator for Diversity and Inclusion in 2017.
Her research focuses on the politics and print culture of post-revolutionary America and the Atlantic world. Presently, she is writing a book about the rise and fall of the Democratic-Republican Societies in 1790s America. Inspired by the French Revolution, these societies formed the first opposition movement to the national government in American history.
