Co-Sponsored by Naomi B. Lynn Distinguished Chair in Lincoln Studies, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, College of Education and Human Services, Gobberdiel Endowment, Abraham Lincoln Association, Brookens Library Holtz Memorial Lecture, Looking for Lincoln Heritage Coalition, Illinois State Historical Society, NPR Illinois / 91.9 UIS, and Sangamon County Historical Society
The 2017 Lincoln Legacy Lectures: Lincoln and Education program will feature a brief discussion by UIS Professor Michael Burlingame about what Abraham Lincoln called his “defective” education, followed by two lectures that illustrate Lincoln’s important legacy as one of America’s greatest intellectuals. The first lecture by Illinois Wesleyan Professor Emeritus Robert Bray will discuss what Abraham Lincoln read and analyze his self-education and penchant for life-long learning. The second lecture by veteran Springfield educator Paula Shotwell will discuss the use of Lincoln in the modern classroom to bring history to life for students, to encourage interest in history and reading, and to inspire students to emulate Lincoln’s intellectual curiosity and thirst for knowledge.
Michael Burlingame holds the Naomi B. Lynn Distinguished Chair in Lincoln Studies at UIS, where he has been a member of the history department since 2009; Robert Bray is Professor Emeritus at Illinois Wesleyan and the author of Reading with Lincoln (Southern Illinois University Press, 2010); and Paula Shotwell is a thirty-year veteran in the Springfield public schools, where she established a living history program, which gives students the opportunity to research and write about history over the course of entire school year and then present their findings in a public history program.