FMU's Dr. Lynn Hanson to deliver Moran Address

Dr. Lynn Hanson, former Francis Marion University English professor, will deliver the 13th William C. Moran Address on Thursday, March 24.

The address will be hosted at the FMU Performing Arts Center in downtown Florence at 4 p.m. It is free and open to the public.

The Moran Address began in 2005 and has traditionally been a platform for retiring or recently retired faculty to deliver remarks encompassing thoughts and ideas from their area of study and life experiences.

Hanson – whose address is titled, “Learning By Doing: From Pretending to Becoming,” – will reflect on lessons learned from a remarkable life and career in business and academics.

Prior to her retirement in 2020, Hanson taught for twenty-two years in Francis Marion’s English Department, where she led the Professional Writing Program. She used her experience of working with companies like IBM prior to entering higher education to engage undergraduates in internship, research, and other professional and hands-on experiences.

A documentation specialist, Hanson has written for industry and academia, collaborated in team settings, developed usability tests, and facilitated large accreditation projects. To teach content and skills in professional writing, she involved students in writing documents for the workplace, blending course preparation with business client projects.

Since 2010, Hanson and her students have spent years researching at Hobcaw Barony, the historic 16,000-acre estate in South Carolina owned and operated by the Belle W. Baruch Foundation. In 2017, Hanson was named co-director of the newly established Belle W. Baruch Institute for South Carolina Studies, a joint venture of Francis Marion University and Coastal Carolina University. 

Hanson continues to serve part time as associate co-director of the Belle W. Baruch Institute for South Carolina Studies.

The Moran Address has been an FMU tradition since 2005 and is named after Dr. William C. Moran, FMU’s vice president of Academic Affairs from 1978-1992. Moran, who went on to become president of Lander University after leaving FMU, is remembered for his many civic, academic, and cultural contributions to South Carolina. He was presented the Governor’s Award in the Humanities in 2008.

The Moran Address is made possible thanks to a generous endowment from the Moran family.