The Jonathan and Maxine Marshall Distinguished Lecture Series brings nationally known scholars concerned with promoting culture through the humanities and a better understanding of the problems of democracy to Arizona State University.
This annual free public lecture is funded with a gift from Jonathan and Maxine Marshall.
An evening with
Laura Tohe
2026 featured speaker
Tuesday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m.
Roskind Great Hall (ARM 101)
About the speaker
Laura Tohe is Sleepy Rock People clan and born for the Bitter Water People clan. She is an award-winning poet and writer and the current Arizona State Poet Laureate. Her books include No Parole Today, Tséyi, Deep in the Rock and Meeting the Spirit of Water, and she co-edited Sister Nations, an anthology of Native American women’s writing. Her oral history book, Code Talker Stories, is a bilingual collection of interviews with remaining Navajo Code Talkers and their descendants.
Tohe has written poetry, essays and media articles that have been widely published nationally and internationally. Her commissioned libretti include Enemy Slayer, A Navajo Oratorio, which premiered at Phoenix Symphony Hall, and Nahasdzáán (Mother Earth]) in the Glittering World/Nahasdzáán Ou Le Monde, which premiered in France. Her work has been recognized with numerous awards, including the 2025 Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award, the Academy of American Poets Fellowship and the Dan Shilling Public Scholar Award from Arizona Humanities.
Tohe has also shared her expertise through the Arizona Humanities Arizona Speaks program, presenting on Indigenous literature, culture and history, including the Navajo Code Talkers. She is Professor Emerita with Distinction from Arizona State University and serves on the Board of Directors for Indigenous Nations Poets (In-Na-Po).
Tohe holds master’s and doctoral degrees in creative writing, American literature and Native American literature.
Parking information
Visitor parking is available in several lots and parking garages near the venue. All parking fees are the responsibility of event attendees. For a list of parking locations and associated fees, please visit cfo.asu.edu/daily-and-hourly.
| Year | Lecturer | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Jesmyn Ward | Award-winning novelist and professor at Tulane University |
| 2024 | Dan-el Padilla Peralta | Author, historian and professor at Princeton University |
| 2023 | Eddie Glaude Jr. | Author and political commentator |
| 2022 | Rita Dove | American poet and essayist |
| 2021 | Clint Smith III | #1 New York Times bestselling author |
| 2020 | Colson Whitehead | American novelist |
| 2018 | Claudia Rankine | Award-winning author |
| 2017 | Roger Cohen | Journalist and author |
| 2016 | Amy Goodman | Host and executive producer of Democracy Now! |
| 2015 | Jane Smiley | Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, essayist and biographer |
| 2014 | Charles Blow | Visual op-ed columnist for The New York Times |
| 2013 | David Walsh | Chief sports writer of the British newspaper The Sunday Times |
| 2012 | Russ Feingold | Former senator, public speaker, educator. |
| 2011 | Nikki Giovanni | World-renowned poet, activist and educator |
| 2010 | Kerry Kennedy | International human rights advocate and author |
| 2009 | Heather Rae | Award-winning Cherokee film director and producer |
| 2008 | Calvin Trillin | Humorist, journalist and author |
| 2007 | Robin Wright | Acclaimed journalist |
| 2006 | Jon Meacham | Managing Editor of Newsweek |
| 2005 | Seymour Hersh | Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist |
| 2004 | Paul Krugman | Professor, Economist, Author and New York Times Columnist |
| 2003-cancelled | Wendy Wasserstein | Playwright |
| 2002 | Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. | Senior attorney, Natural Resources Defense Council |
| 2001-cancelled | Martha Nussbaum | Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, University of Chicago |
| 2000 | Baruch Blumberg | Director, NASA's Astrobiology Institute |
| 1998 | Martin Marty | Director, Public Religion Project, University of Chicago School of Divinity |
| 1997 | Daniel Goldhagen | Author, “Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust” |
| 1997 | Arthur Caplan | Director, Center of Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania President, American Association of Bioethics |
| 1996 | Doris Kearns Goodwin | Pulitzer Prize winning historian |
| 1995 | Lester Brown | Founder, WorldWatch Institute |
| 1994 | Thomas Wicker | Former editorial columnist, The New York Times |
| 1993 | Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. | Pulitzer Prize winning historian |