"Centennial of Fire," an address by noted historian and author Dr. Roberta Senechal (at left), will be presented beginning at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, October 23, in the lobby of the Public Affairs Center at the University of Illinois at Springfield. The program is free and open to the public.In this lecture, Senechal surveys the course of Springfield's 1908 race riot, and the reaction of the press and public, weighing the known facts in light of her later work on collective violence, in the United States and elsewhere.
Senechal's published works include the award-winning In Lincoln's Shadow, the only book-length study of the Springfield riot. Originally published in 1990 by the University of Illinois Press as The Sociogenesis of a Race Riot: Springfield, Illinois, in 1908, a reprint of the book under its new title is forthcoming from Southern Illinois University Press. She is currently an associate professor of History at Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, where she specializes in American social and urban history, the history of crime and violence, women's history in the United States, and African-American history.
Senechal's presentation is one of the keynote addresses for the 30th Annual Conference of the Association for Integrative Studies, hosted by UIS and held October 23-26 at the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel. It is also a program in the ECCE Speakers Series at UIS -- events that aim to exemplify engaged citizenship as part of the university’s effort to foster appreciation for and practice of diversity and the active effort to make a difference in the world.
Upcoming ECCE programs include "Queer Love in the Time of War and Shopping" with Martin Manalansan on October 29; and "Indians from India" and "Bollywood Satirized," an art exhibit and discussion, on November 6. See the schedule of speakers and topics for the 2008 Fall Semester.
The Association for Integrative Studies is an interdisciplinary professional organization founded in 1979 and charged with promoting the interchange of ideas about integration and interdisciplinarity, in all of the arts and sciences, among scholars and administrators around the world.
For more information about Dr. Senechal's presentation, contact Karen Moranski, associate vice chancellor for undergraduate education at UIS and associate professor of English, at 206-7440.
For information about any ECCE event, contact Kimberly Craig, series coordinator, at 206-6245 or send an e-mail to speakerseries@uis.edu.
