The Speakers & Issues Series at Midwestern State University has two guests lined up this fall, one in person and the second via Zoom. The first, costume designer Jonna Hayden, will speak at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 19, at the Wichita Falls Museum of Art at MSU Texas. Her presentation is titled “String Theory: Building a Fantasy World with Believable Clothing.”

Hayden will take listeners on a 40-thousand-year journey through the beginnings of dress and how it manifests in real and created worlds. String – clothing is made from string, whether the source is flora or fauna (or bugs). Adding depth and consistency to our world means paying attention to how clothing production fits into culture. “You can’t have gold lamé dresses if you don’t have mining, mountains, and metalsmiths,” Hayden says.

The second guest is Patty Wilde, associate professor of English at Washington State University. Her topic is “Winning Our Wonder: Remembering Women Spies and Soldiers of the American Civil War.” Wilde’s Zoom talk is also sponsored by Sigma Tau Delta and the Phi Alpha Theta Speaker Series. The Zoom session will be at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2.

These events are free and open to the public. The Speakers & Issues Series is sponsored by the Libra Foundation, the Wichita Falls Times Record news, KCCU-FM NPR radio, KFDX TV3, the Prothro-Yeager College of Social Sciences and Humanities, and the Office of the Provost. Contact John Schulze at ext. 6249 for more information.