A lifelong educator
Zaidee Creel Williams, a member of the Class of 1924, was a lifelong educator. Following her death in 1987, her nephew, Austin B. Creel, and other family members decided to honor her memory by endowing a lectureship in the area of religious studies.
Since the inaugural lecture in 1989, the Zaidee Creel Williams Lectureship has enabled the Department of Religious Studies to bring exciting, dynamic scholars in the field of religious studies to the University, enriching the intellectual life not only of the campus but the community at large.
Past Zaidee Creel Williams Lecturers
| Year | Lecturer | Lecture Title |
| 2022 | Dr. Raymond Barfield | “Why Storytelling is the heart of Great Medical Practice” |
| 2020 | Dr. Andrea R. Jain | “Peace, Love, Yoga: The Politics of Global Spirituality” |
| 2017 | Dr. Mickey Mattox | “Martin Luther and God’s Good Creation: An Arena of Love and Reason” |
| 2015 | Daniel B. Mathewson | “Rasslin’ with Religion and the Rebel Flag: Christian Professional Wrestling After Charleston” |
| 2013 | Dr. Vasudha Narayanan | “From Angkor to Atlanta: Architecture and Performance in Global Hindu Traditions” |
| 2011 | Stephen Prothero | “Fostering Religious Literacy after 9/11 and Revolution 2.0” |
| 2008 | Carlos M.N. Eire | “Not Here, Not Now, Not Ever: Life at the End of Eternity” |
| 2006 | Amina Wadud | “Inside the Gender Jihad” |
| 2004 | Ed Curtis | “An American Jihad: Muslim Life in the United States” |
| 2002 | David Bartlett | “Living by the Sword – Dying by the Sword: Biblical Perspectives on Violence” |
