Identities will be explored at the fifth annual TEDxMarshallU.

The event will take place on Saturday, Feb. 25, in the Don Morris Room from 7-9 p.m.

Eight different speakers will be featured at the TEDxMarshallU event. They include: Ashalia Aggrawal, Audy M. Perry Jr., ​​Dr. Hilary Brewster, Kathleen McAuliffe, Carmen Mitzi Sinnott, Rashad Sanders, Dr. Razan Khan and Sassa Wilkes.

“I am so excited to share our TEDx event this year,” Darshan Sangani, one of the student co-organizers and this year’s event coordinator, said. “I strongly believe we have curated a list of brilliant speakers whose ideas and associated stories will profoundly resonate with our audience. By the end, we hope to give our audience the tools and strength to explore their own identities and empower themselves in our complex reality.”

TEDxMarshallU is an independent TED event where they are able to use the TED branding, but the funding and organization are done independently. This allows for the topic to be focused more locally.

“The cool part about TED is that it’s not about the story, it’s about the idea, and the story is the vehicle to the idea,” Bex Law, the event’s executive producer and one of the student co-organizers, said.

This year’s theme is “Complexities of Identity,” and the organization of the event is being lead by Dr. Brian Kinghorn, an associate professor in Marshall’s College of Education and Professional Development.

Kinghorn says that he is excited to be organizing the event and that, “Each year we wonder how we will find a comparable theme, team and lineup of speakers after our successful previous events, but each year we manage to go bigger and better.”

Tickets are $15 for general admission and $5 for current Marshall University or K-12 students and are for sale on the event’s website at www.tedxmarshallu.com.

Bex Law is currently a Parthenon Reporter.