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ASU Civil War Lecture Series Continued

August 06, 2012

Due to the success of the 2011-12 Angelo State University lecture series commemorating the 150thanniversary of the Civil War, the series will be continued for the 2012-13 academic year with seven new programs covering American Civil War topics.  

ASU History Department Head Dr. Kenneth J. Heineman announced the continuation of the popular series and named Dr. Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai, whose specialty is 19th century American and Civil War history, as coordinator for the new series of presentations, which will begin Sept. 17 with “Reading the Civil War:  Favorite Civil War Books.” 

Heineman said, “We had such a positive response from the public about the Civil War programs during the last academic year that we wanted to continue to broaden the programs this year to a wider range of topics related to the Civil War.  My charge to Dr. Wongsrichanalai was to broaden the topics beyond the straight historical presentations of last year.” 

Wongsrichanalai said the 2012-13 programs will range from readings from books about the period to performances of Civil War music, and from topics on slavery in early Texas to mules, the Civil War and the Texas frontier.  The series will conclude in April with a dramatic reading of original Civil War letters. 

“The Civil War is the most pivotal event in American history,” said Wongsrichanalai.  “This year, I wanted to broaden the discussion to include topics that highlighted the experience of living in the Civil War Era.  Therefore, we have lectures about the literature and music of the conflict.  We’ll examine the motivations of the young men who volunteered to fight for the Union or the Confederacy. 

“We’re also starting off the series this year by demonstrating the wide range of ways in which people became interested in the war.  Selected readings from primary documents, history books, contemporary and modern fiction draw people from all different backgrounds to the study of this conflict.” 

The schedule of ASU’s 2012-13 Civil War Commemoration Lecture Series is: 

Persons interested in more information on the Civil War series can email the ASU History Department at civilwar150@angelo.edu. 

Heineman said the goal of the lecture series is to engage the community in reflection on the Civil War and its impact, even on contemporary society.  He said the lecture series would also be a learning experience for secondary school teachers and their students. 

The Civil War speaker series is jointly sponsored by multiple ASU departments, including the History Department, Center for Security Studies, West Texas Collection, Multicultural Center and Air Force ROTC, as well as Fort Concho and the Concho Valley Civil War Roundtable, to commemorate the watershed event in American history.