EVENTS

“Naval Exploration and U.S. National Maturity, 1776-1860,” 10/6 Colloquium with Drury University’s Michael Verney | 10/06/2023

To kick off October Colloquium Series programming, Drury University Assistant Professor of History Michael Verney will traverse the globe, examining how U.S. Naval exploring expeditions were dispatched throughout the first half of the 19th century in the name of establishing the nation as a cultural equal and imperial rival to the great powers of Europe. […]

“John Locke in America: Past to Present,” 10/20 Colloquium with University of Montana’s Claire Rydell Arcenas | 10/20/2023

Delivering, somewhat surprisingly, the first Colloquium Series presentation on John Locke, University of Montana Associate Professor of History Claire Rydell Arcenas will draw on her 2022 University of Chicago Press monograph, America’s Philosopher, to explore both the indelible mark Locke left on intellectual life in the early U.S. and the difficulties we face in the […]

“Underground Railroads to Mexico: Undertold Stories of Freedom & Abolition,” 11/3 Colloquium with Ohio State’s María Esther Hammack | 11/03/2023

For her November 3 colloquium presentation, Ohio State University Assistant Professor of History María Esther Hammack will geographically re-orient familiar narratives of Black Liberation in 19th-century North America, focusing specifically on the histories of Black women who challenged U.S. slavery and pursued freedom via the underground railroads that led South to Mexico. The talk will […]

“Imagining Freedom: Toni Morrison and the Work of Words,” 11/17 Colloquium with University of Virginia’s Lawrie Balfour | 11/17/2023

Highlighting Toni Morrison’s vital contributions to democratic inquiry, University of Virginia James Hart Professor of Politics Lawrie Balfour’s talk will explore how, in reimagining moments that have been left out of official histories, Morrison’s novels and non-fiction works cultivate an enriched understanding of freedom that is not predicated on the enslavement of others. The talk […]

“Beyond Jefferson: The Hemingses and Randolphs and the Making of Nineteenth-Century America,” 12/1 Colloquium with UVA’s Christa Dierksheide | 12/01/2023

For the final Friday Colloquium Series presentation of the Fall 2023 semester, Kinder Institute Distinguished Visiting Research Fellow Christa Dierksheide, on leave for the year from University of Virginia, will explore how two Founding Era principles central to Jefferson’s understanding of the nation’s republican project, equality and independence, were redefined by his descendants, in widely […]