News

The first major biography in 20 years on Jeannette Rankin, written by historian Lorissa Rinehart, was released on Election Day 2025. Winning the Earthquake (St. Martin’s Press, November 2025) reintroduces Rankin, the national icon and longtime Georgia resident, who defied all odds to be elected the first woman to serve in the U.S. Congress.

On Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 3 p.m., the annual Jeannette Rankin Legacy Lecture held at the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies at the University of Georgia will feature a conversation with Rinehart discussing Rankin’s legacy and how her fearless leadership shaped the women’s rights and peace movements of the 20th century. Winning the Earthquake will be for sale at the event, and Rinehart will be signing copies.

Building on their award-winning faculty fellows program, University of Georgia Libraries in partnership with the Office of Instruction and EITS will offer two opportunities for faculty to design new courses centered on unique resources that drive active learning and student engagement.

The Creative Engagement Wing Faculty Fellows program launches in the spring, preparing faculty to use the cutting edge spaces of the new MLC Creative Engagement Wing to facilitate student innovation, collaboration, and hands-on learning.

Former Los Angeles Times Publisher and CNN President Tom Johnson will discuss his new book Driven: A Life in Public Service and Journalism from LBJ to CNN as part of the University of Georgia’s Fall 2025 Signature Lecture series on Wednesday, October 29. The public conversation with Red and Black Executive Director Charlotte Varnum will begin at 4 p.m. at the UGA Special Collections Libraries Building, with a light reception and a book signing to follow.

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In a landmark donation that underscores the importance of Latino voices in Southern history, Mundo Hispanico/MundoNOW —Georgia’s longest-standing Spanish-language news organization—has gifted its complete print archives to the University of Georgia’s Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies.

The collection, representing over 40 years of uninterrupted publication from 1979 to the present, provides an extraordinary, detailed chronicle of Latino life, leadership, and community-building in Georgia and the Southeast. As a primary news source for Spanish-speaking residents for decades, Mundo Hispanico offered vital information, advocacy, and cultural affirmation to generations of immigrant families and new Americans.

Deborah Blum, celebrated author of The Poisoner’s Handbook and The Poison Squad, will return to Athens, where her investigative journalism career began, for a discussion about the science and safety of food.

The Sept. 23 event, which has been designated as a University of Georgia Signature Lecture, will serve as Blum’s induction into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, as well as the annual Food, Power, and Politics Lecture sponsored by the Russell Library for Political Research and Studies.

University of Georgia Associate Provost & University Librarian Toby Graham has announced the appointment of Dr. Ashton Ellett as the director of the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies.

Ellett, who has served as the Russell Library’s politics and public policy archivist since 2018, will also oversee the Georgia Capitol Museum in Atlanta as part of his new role. He succeeds Sheryl Vogt, who recently retired after marking 50 years with the Russell Library, one of three special collections units within the University of Georgia Libraries.

‘Listen to reason, the season is calling’

Film footage and audio from the early days of R.E.M. and other iconic rock bands from Athens will be digitally restored to preserve the nostalgia while sharing with the next generation, thanks to donors to a University of Georgia Libraries campaign currently under way.

A $300,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities will allow for the expansion of the Georgia Historic Newspapers website, which provides free online access to more than 1,000 newspapers across the state dating as far back as 1763.

The grant continues a decade-long effort of the University of Georgia Libraries, through the Digital Library of Georgia, to provide online access to a diverse array of journalism chronicling communities large and small, from Atlanta to Americus, and beyond.