Marketing Expert Will Strive For 'Subversive' at Utah State Lecture April 17

Writer, brander, marketer and communications specialist Sheena McFarland will challenge Utah State University students, staff and faculty to stop contributing to the process of “minoritization” when she presents the 2019 Morris Media & Society Lecture Wednesday, April 17.
 
McFarland is the director of marketing and communications at the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah, and a former reporter and editor at The Salt Lake Tribune, where she covered topics ranging from education to government to astronomy. Born in India, McFarland was adopted as a baby by a family in Utah, and she has written with transparency and passion about growing up as a minority in one of the most homogenous states in the nation.
 
In her lecture, scheduled for 2 p.m. in the Merrill-Cazier Library on Utah State’s Logan campus, McFarland will discuss what marketers and professional communicators can, and should, be doing to ensure they are not continuing a cycle of minoritization – the process by which social constructs push people to the margins of society in ways that are far beyond their control.
 
The series, designed to bring diverse, alternative and provocative media voices to the Utah State community, is sponsored by the Department of Journalism and Communication and supported by an endowment from DeAnn Morris in honor of her late brother, former journalism professor John Morris.
 
“We ask our guests to be subversive in whatever way they define that idea,” said Matthew LaPlante, an associate professor of journalistic writing at Utah State and the facilitator of the series. “I tell that to some speakers, and they seem to be a little nervous. I told that to Sheena, and I could hear her rubbing her hands together.”
 
The event is free and open to all members of the community. More information is available from Utah State's Department of Journalism and Communication at 435-797-3292.