Siena Heights University will host its first Scholarship Symposium featuring keynote speaker Ann Larabee April 8 on the Adrian campus.

Larabee, an English professor at Michigan State University, will deliver the keynote address “Dissent and the First Amendment in the Twenty-First Century” at 9 a.m. in Francoeur Theater. Her address will focus on her work on the First Amendment and radical speech, and she will connect it to the ways that research can help strengthen people’s right to free speech. Her talk will also connect to this year’s University academic theme of “Contemplation and Action.”

The Symposium is being organized by SHU Assistant Professor of English Julie Barst. She said the goal of the event is to showcase student scholarship on campus and allow faculty, staff and the community to view some of the outstanding academic achievement happening at the University.

“We hope to make this an annual tradition,” Barst said. “It’s kind of a ‘classes meet elsewhere’ concept.”

There will be student presentations as well as several panels and discussions throughout the day.