MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Meribah Knight, senior reporter and producer at Nashville Public Radio, will give a public lecture about her investigative work during a visit to Middle Tennessee State University’s campus on Friday, March 22.  

Knight is the host, reporter and producer of the Peabody Award-winning podcast series “The Promise,” which explores stories of inequality and resilience. 

The lecture, hosted by the College of Media and Entertainment, is free and open to the public. It will be held at 10:20 a.m. in room 160 in the College of Education, 1756 MTSU Blvd. A searchable campus parking map is available at http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParkingMap. 

During her upcoming appearance at the university, she will discuss how hundreds of children, some as young as 7 years old, were unlawfully arrested and jailed in Rutherford County, Tennessee, under the direction of a long-term juvenile court judge. 

Knight spent three years working on “The Kids of Rutherford County” series, with media outlets from across the globe spotlighting the controversy.

A Pulitzer Prize finalist, Knight’s work has been featured in The New York Times and The New Yorker. Her reporting was also a finalist for the Goldsmith Award and a National Magazine Award. Currently a fellow in ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network, her radio work has appeared on National Public Radio and The PBS News Hour.

Originally from Cambridge, Massachusetts, Knight earned her bachelor’s degree from New York University and a master’s in journalism from Northwestern University.

Nashville Public Radio serves Middle Tennessee by providing news, music and cultural programs on WPLN-FM 90.3, an NPR news affiliate; WNXP-FM 91.1, an NPR music affiliate; Nashville Classical Radio; WPLN International; and online at nashvillepublicradio.org.

Off-campus visitors attending Knight’s lecture should obtain a special one-day permit from MTSU’s Office of Parking and Transportation at www.mtsu.edu/parking/. Free parking is available in the Rutherford Boulevard parking lots on the east side of campus, with free Raider Xpress shuttle service running periodically to the interior of campus.

— DeAnn Hays (deann.hays@mtsu.edu)