Dr. David Gillespie will deliver a public lecture, “The Charleston Tragedy and Dylann Roof Trial,” on Wednesday, Feb. 21 at 6:00 p.m. The talk will be held in the Kuhne Auditorium in Neville Hall on the Presbyterian College campus.

The PC String Quartet will provide music beginning at 4:45 p.m. in the lobby of the Cornelson Center, adjacent to the Kuhne Auditorium in Neville Hall. A reception, featuring a book signing and hors d’oeuvres, will begin at 5:00 p.m.

The event is sponsored by PC’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion and is free and open to the public.

Gillespie is the author of four scholarly works. His latest is The Trial of White Nationalist Dylann Roof:  Killer of Nine Black Christians in their Charleston Church. It’s one of two works that are focused on the race-motivated mass murders at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston in 2015 and their aftermath.

Gillespie’s other scholarly works focus on America’s third, or minor, political parties.

Gillespie joined the Presbyterian College faculty in 1979 and served until 2006. Drs. Gillespie, Tom Weaver, and Booker Ingram were the first members of PC’s Department of Political Science.

Gillespie was selected as the Carnegie-CASE South Carolina Professor of the Year in 1993.

In 1997 Gillespie was named as chief administrator of PC’s academic program.  He was Vice-President of Academic Affairs for the eight ensuing years.

Over the course of his tenure at PC, Gillespie served at various times as President of the SC Political Science Association, President of the Academic Deans’ Conference of SC Independent Colleges and Universities, and Chair of the Laurens County Democratic Party.

After retiring from PC, Gillespie continued to teach part-time at the College of Charleston and The Citadel. He finally retired from teaching in 2015.

Gillespie received his B.A. and M.A. degrees at Wake Forest University (1966, 1967) and his Ph.D. at Kent State University (1973).  He was a member of the faculty of Samford University in Birmingham from 1973 to 1979.