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¿ìÉ«ÊÓƵ’s Center for History and Culture of Southeast Texas and the Upper Gulf Coast will celebrate the rich history, art, literature, music and cuisine of the region at its inaugural event January 30.

The 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. event will be held in the University Event Center on the 8th floor of the Mary and John Gray Library. Door prizes, music and regional foods will be featured in the occasion that will be open and free to the public.

When he retired in 2014, Dr. Sam Monroe was the longest tenured college president in Texas after serving in that role at Lamar State College-Port Arthur since 1974.  He will bring remarks at the opening.

The Center for History and Culture will host future events. The Center will host a focus on food, February 13, when Rebecca Boone presents “Culinary Traditions of Southeast Texas and Louisiana” in a student session Landes Auditorium of the Galloway Business Building, 2 p.m.  At 5 p.m., a reception and talk will be held in the University Event Center, 8th Floor of the Mary and John Gray Library. The event is free and open to the public.

Boone holds a Ph.D. from Rutgers University, and teaches courses on the Renaissance and Reformation, Early Modern Europe, the French Revolution and Napoleon, the Atlantic World, Witchcraft and the Occult, Ancient Greece and Rome, and the History of Food, among others.

She is also the director of Slow Food Beaumont, a member of a global, grassroots movement with more than 2,000 food communities throughout more than 150 countries working to provide better access to fresh, local and fair food.

In March, the Center will focus on archaeology when it explores “LaBelle: the Ship that Changed History,” with author James E. Bruseth, with a 1 p.m. student session in Landes Auditorium, Galloway Business Building, and a free public lecture and reception in the University Event Center, 8th floor of the Mary and John Gray Library from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Bruseth, the former director of the Texas Historical Commission’s Archeology Division, was responsible for the full excavation of the water-logged La Belle commissioned by France in 1684 that was discovered in 1995 in Matagorda Bay.