{"id":158610,"date":"2026-05-04T11:40:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T16:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=158610"},"modified":"2026-05-05T13:28:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T18:28:17","slug":"ole-miss-names-poet-physicist-as-2026-faculty-laureates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/ole-miss-names-poet-physicist-as-2026-faculty-laureates\/","title":{"rendered":"Ole Miss Names Poet, Physicist as 2026 Faculty Laureates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Luca Bombelli, Beth Ann Fennelly to bring expertise to the public through laureate program<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The University of Mississippi Faculty Laureate program<\/strong> is bringing science and arts education to the state with a novel approach: a poet, a physicist and a portable planetarium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mississippi Lab<\/a>, a project of the Office of the Provost<\/a>, selects two faculty members every other year as the university’s faculty laureates<\/a>. The program’s goal is to bring the expertise, knowledge and passion for education from the Ole Miss<\/strong> campus to Mississippi communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This cycle’s laureates are Luca Bombelli<\/strong>, professor of physics and astronomy<\/a>, and Beth Ann Fennelly<\/strong>, distinguished professor of English<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Luca Bombelli. Photo by Hunt Mercier\/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“Our jury of six faculty made its choices by focusing on proposals that put\u00a0University of Mississippi<\/a>\u00a0faculty in a broad range of Mississippi communities, applying their knowledge and teaching in bold, nontraditional ways,” said John T. Edge<\/strong>, director of the Mississippi Lab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Supported by generous stipends, enabled by reduced teaching loads, the professors in this second cohort will help reintroduce the people of Mississippi to the transformative power of our university.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bombelli, a theoretical physicist who specializes in gravitational physics, will bring a mobile planetarium to high schools across the state. The goal is not only to interest students in the vast universe, but to spur a lifelong love of science, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Luca Bombelli (right), professor of physics and astronomy, talks about his work during a panel discussion on gravitational waves and black holes at the University of Mississippi. Photo by Robert Jordan\/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“Sitting inside a planetarium, students can imagine themselves under a starry sky, and I will tell them stories about what they can see, how it changes over time and what one can learn by looking at it,” Bombelli said. “I know of people who decided that science was what they wanted to do in life after a visit to a planetarium when they were kids, and I plan to bring that experience to students in all corners of our state.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fennelly, poet laureate of Mississippi<\/a> from 2016 to 2021, has a mission to bring Mississippi stories to readers across the state. She will begin her term by organizing and leading a free weekly Mississippi Literature class for the Lafayette-Oxford-University community, with each session focusing on a Mississippi writer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As my term progresses, I will conduct classes around the state, each site-specific and focused on a single Mississippi author, equipping more Mississippians with the skills to appreciate and celebrate our state’s best export: our stories,” Fennelly said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Beth Ann Fennelly. Photo by Kevin Bain\/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
University of Mississippi English professor Beth Ann Fennelley speaks with students during one of her classes. Fennelly hopes to teach people across the state about Mississippi writers through the university’s Faculty Laureate program. Photo by Kevin Bain\/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Faculty Laureates program<\/strong> is developed and managed by the Mississippi Lab and underwritten by the Daniel W. Jones Endowment <\/strong>for Faculty Support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Clara Turnage<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luca Bombelli, Beth Ann Fennelly to bring expertise to the public through laureate program The University of Mississippi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123462,"featured_media":158615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25263],"tags":[3602,34459,1330,21489,27115,7067,34458,33657,655,34457],"class_list":["post-158610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-university-news","tag-beth-ann-fennelly","tag-daniel-w-jones-endowment","tag-john-t-edge","tag-luca-bombelli","tag-office-of-the-provost","tag-ole-miss","tag-the-faculty-laureates-program","tag-the-mississippi-lab","tag-university-of-mississippi","tag-university-of-mississippi-faculty-laureate-program"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Fac.Laureates2026-1-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1434&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123462"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158610"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158698,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158610\/revisions\/158698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}