The University of Illinois at Springfield’s Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speaker Series will present UIS professor emeritus of History Cullom Davis for a lecture titled “Prisoners of Conscience in the Modern Era” on April 16 at 7 p.m. in Brookens Auditorium, located on the lower level of Brookens Library on the UIS campus. The event is free and open to the public.
During his presentation, Davis will reflect on the lives of modern and contemporary prisoners of conscience, such as Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar (Burma), who has been under house arrest for much of the time since 1988 for opposing the repressive national government.
Davis served for fifteen years as founding director of Sangamon State University’s Oral History Office and helped found the university’s master’s program in Public History. From 1988 to 2000, he was also director and senior editor of The Lincoln Legal Papers. In 2008, Davis was one of thirty citizens world-wide to receive the special bicentennial edition of The Order of Lincoln, the state’s highest honor.
A dessert reception will follow the lecture in the Public Affairs Center Restaurant. The event is sponsored by the Friends of Brookens Library.
The complete schedule of ECCE speakers and topics for the 2009 Spring Semester is available at http://illinois.edu/goto/speakerseries. For information about any ECCE event, contact Kimberly Craig, series coordinator, at 206-6245 or e-mail speakerseries@uis.edu.
