A noted author and researcher on journalism ethics will give the annual Michael Davis Lecture at Southeast Missouri State University Sunday.

Dr. Shirley Staples Carter will be featured at the lecture, which begins at 7 p.m. Sunday at the University Ballroom. Admission is free for the event, which is open to the public.

The lecture, which is a part of the university's recognition of Black History Month, was established in 1996 in memory of Michael Davis, a journalism student at the university who died in February 1994 as a result of a hazing ritual.

Carter is the first black to be elected president of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication, an international organization of 200 administrators of undergraduate and graduate programs in journalism and mass communications.

She is currently authoring a book on the history of blacks in advertising and has helped pioneer work in the analysis of values in advertising.

Dr. Ferrell Ervin, chairman of the university's mass communication department, said the lecture series was established to bring outstanding role models to campus to talk about their professional experience and to help the campus community realize how mass communication impacts life.

Carter is a dynamic speaker whose research and experience makes her a wonderful candidate as a Davis lecturer, he said.

"Dr. Staples has performed some powerful research that definitely will cause those who attend to pay more attention," said Ervin. "She's going to be a wonderful lecturer."