Events 2010-2012

Sheldon Hackney is the David Boies Professor of History Emeritus. Professor Hackney specializes in the history of the American South since the Civil War. He possesses an interest in American utopias and other social movements, with an emphasis on the Civil Rights Movement and the 1960s, which he frequently pursues in seminars. He is at work on a book about the American identity from pre-colonial days to the present, which is the subject of a lecture course.

Among the articles and books on history that Professor Hackney has published, “Populism to Progressivism in Alabama” won the Albert J. Beveridge Award of the American Historical Association. Professor Hackney is the former president of the University of Pennsylvania (1981 – 1993) and the former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (1993 – 1997). He has written and spoken widely about higher education, national cultural policy, and the state of the humanities in American life.

Professor Hackney will present the topic, “Shades of Freedom,” which will begin with some reflections on the recent events in Egypt and in the Middle East. He will then give a historical perspective on the interaction of the American experience with our ever changing, yet persistent sense of ourselves as a nation. We can be proud of this history although it contains numerous contradictions and subtleties.

The Lecture will begin at 2:00 P.M. on Thursday, April 21, 2011 in the First Floor Auditorium of Jon M. Huntsman Hall at 38th and Walnut. Reception will follow in the MBA Lounge, located on the 2nd Floor.

Vartan Gregorian, Carnegie Corporation; 4 p.m.; Rm. 17, Cohen Hall