Coastal Carolina University professor Gary Carson will give a talk on "Religion, Communication and Diversity" on Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 7 p.m. at the University's Waccamaw Higher Education Center in Litchfield. The event is free and open to the public.

The discussion is part of "Creativity and Conflict," the University's seventh annual series designed to involve the community with faculty members in public discussions on important issues. Carson, assistant professor of communication, will discuss the complexity of communication and the conflicts of religious expression.

Based on his study of a variety of communication theories, Carson will explore the reasons why all societies have religious foundations and how communication makes religion possible. Employing a variety of stories, parables, practices and logic, Carson will demonstrate that addressing the communication aspects of religion can create clearer understandings and lessen tensions between divergent religious expressions.

Carson attended Alderson Broaddus College and earned a Master's of Divinity degree from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He earned a Ph.D. in communication from the University of South Florida. He served as a pastor for many years and has taught at a number of universities and colleges in the Tampa, Fla., area.

Carson's specialty areas are organizational communication, crisis communication, leadership and rhetoric. His research areas are stockholder management, the rhetoric of CEOs and problem solving.

The series is sponsored by the Board of Visitors of the Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts. For more information, call 843-349-2421