Fresh Perspectives on Liberty, Equality and Emancipation At Public Conference
1 May 2013
American Civil War President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address speech will be among the topics covered in this year's University Public History Conference.
The Public History Conference showcases the work of our second year undergraduates. Many of the people and organisations mentioned in the conference papers will be familiar to people, but the students' take on them may not.
”Dr Ian Whitehead - Head of Literary, Historical and Cultural Studies at the University.
Abraham Lincoln, Robert Mugabe, Napoleon and Nelson Mandela will be among the famous historical names under scrutiny at the University of Derby's annual Public History Conference.
Every year, as part of their degree, second year BA (Hons) History students take part in a public conference at the University, presenting original papers designed to give fresh or unusual perspectives on well-known characters and eras.
With 2013 marking milestones in progressing human equality such as the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, 50 years since Dr Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech and the centenary of civil rights activist Rosa Parks' birth, the University's Public History Conference is this year dedicated to the theme of 'Liberty, Equality and Emancipation'.
Fourteen papers will be delivered by student teams between 8.45am and 5.45pm on Wednesday May 8 in Lecture Room B301, in B Block, at the University's Kedleston Road site, Derby.
The day-long event is free and open to anyone who books ahead, with visitors able to pick which presentations they wish to hear.
Anyone wishing to attend the event should book a place by contacting Dr Ian Whitehead - Head of Literary, Historical and Cultural Studies - via email address: i.whitehead@derby.ac.uk or telephone 01332 591852.
Following refreshments at 8.15am on the day and a welcoming address by Professor John Coyne, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Derby, the conference presentations will be as follows:
- 9am: Remembering Gettysburg - "The world will little note nor long remember what we say here"
- 9.30am: The Rosa Parks Myth - Not Just A Passenger
- 10am: The Women's KKK - Tradition and Morality in the American South
- 10.50am: Russian Peasant Women and the Experience of Emancipation
- 11.20am: Manifest Destiny - Reversing the Language of Liberty
- 12.05pm: The Riot in the Closet - Stonewall and Gay Liberation in America
- 12.35pm: Dethroning the Beauty Queens - Women's Liberation or the Oppression of Free Will?
- 1.45pm: Tom Paine - An English Revolutionary and American Liberty
- 2.15pm: Napoleon - The Great Emancipator of the Jews?
- 2.45pm: Liberté, Égalité, Fraternite - French Revolutionary Ideas and the Creation of Haiti
- 3.35pm: The Long Road to Freedom - The Exaggerated Role of Nelson Mandela
- 4.05pm: From Educator to Oppressor - Life in Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe
- 4.45pm: Rwanda - The UN's Humanitarian Laboratory
- 5.15pm: The Roma People and the Construction of a Common European Homeland
- 5.45pm: Concluding Address.
Dr Whitehead said: "The Public History Conference showcases the work of our second year undergraduates. Many of the people and organisations mentioned in the conference papers will be familiar to people, but the students' take on them may not.
"I invite people to come and hear a fascinating and varied range of papers that will demonstrate the centrality of history to understanding issues of liberty and equality, which remain at the heart of contemporary global politics."
Previous themes have included Religion, Monarchy, Empire, and Discovery.
History at the University of Derby has consistently received 100% satisfaction scores in the National Student Survey of student satisfaction.
For further press information please contact Sean Kirby, University of Derby Press and PR Officer, on 01332 591891 or email: s.kirby@derby.ac.uk
