Events

Check back soon for Fall 2025

Spindletop

January 11, 2025

124th Spindletop Anniversary.

Spindletop Boomtown Museum. 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.

The Center for History and Culture will participate in the 124th Spindletop Anniversary hosted by the Spindletop Boomtown Museum (5550 Jimmy Simmons Blvd). The celebration will include live music, reenactments, history discussions, food vendors, and more. Learn more about this event →

Jeff Forret The Price They Paid

March 6, 2025

The Price They Paid with Dr. Jeff Forret.

5:00 pm, Tyrrell Historical Library (695 Pearl St, Beaumont, TX 77701).

Dr. Jeff Forret, Professor of History and Assistant Director of the Center, will talk about his new book, The Price They Paid: Slavery, Shipwrecks, and Reparations before the Civil War, published by the New Press. Dr. Forret will be available to sign copies and answer questions. From the publisher: "In 1831, the American ship Comet, carrying 165 enslaved men, women, and children, crashed onto a coral reef in the Bahamas, then part of the British Empire. Shortly afterward, the Vice Admiralty Court in Nassau, over the outraged objections of the ship’s captain, set the rescued captives free. American slave owners and the companies who insured the liberated human cargo would spend years lobbying for reparations from Great Britain, not for the emancipated slaves, of course, but for the masters deprived of their human property." Refreshments provided. Free and open to the public.

March 20, 2025

LU First Gen Perspectives: First Gen Experiences across Generations.

5:00 pm, Setzer Student Center San Jacinto Room 218.

A panel of current students, alumni, & faculty will share their experiences as First Generation College Students & discuss the unique challenges they faced while pursuing their degrees. Q&A will follow. REFRESHMENTS PROVIDED. Free and open to all.

Helms Tippen

April 1, 2025

Food Culture of the Greater Gulf with Dr. Carrie Helms Tippen.

4:30-6:00 pm. Reaud Event Space (Reaud Building Room 101).

985 Jim Gilligan Way, Beaumont, TX 77705.

Dr. Carrie Helms Tippen will give the keynote talk for the 2025 Greater Gulf Symposium. She is Associate Professor of English at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, PA, and the author of Unpalatable: Stories of Pain and Pleasure in Southern Cookbooks (2025) and Inventing Authenticity: How Cookbook Writers Redefine Southern Identity (2018). Dr. Helms Tippen is a host of the podcast New Books in Food from the New Books Network. Before the talk, join us for a poster session and reception with the Symposium Fellows. Free and open to the public.