Historic Southern Indiana

The 5th Annual Lincoln Institute for Teachers
"A House Dividing: Lincoln and the Emergence of Modern Politics"
June 19-20, 2008

This is the fifth in a series of annual programs focusing on Lincoln as the bicentennial of his birth approaches in 2009. This year’s institute focused on important events during 1858 as the country moved closer to the Civil War. Teachers from all grade levels and disciplines were invited to attend.

Nicole Etcheson, the Alexander M. Bracken Professor of History at Ball State University, will discuss national events in 1858 such as the aftermath of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the rise of the Republican Party. She also will conduct as session on doing history at the county level. David Zarefsky, the Owen L. Coon Professor of Argumentation and Debate, and Professor of Communication Studies, at Northwestern University, has studied the Lincoln-Douglas debates and he will discuss them and their place in the history of public debate. Since this is a presidential election year, a panel of University of Southern Indiana professors including Linda Bennett, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Stephen Bennett, professor of political science, and Brian Posler, Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs, will consider the impact of the events of the late 1850s and discuss their impact on modern politics. George Buss and Tim Connors, Lincoln and Douglass re-enactors, will offer a free public program on the evening of June 19.

Speaker Biographies

Linda Bennett is the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Southern Indiana where she oversees five colleges, the Rice Library, Graduate Studies and Sponsored Research, University Division, Extended Services, Center for Teaching and Learning excellence, and Institutional Research and Assessment. In addition to her administrative duties Bennett is a tenured professor of political science at USI and previously taught at Appalachian State University, Northern Kentucky University, and Wittenberg University. She has written for several major scholarly publications and serves as a consultant evaluator for the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association. Bennett is active in the community and serves on the Evansville Mayor’s Education Roundtable, the Southwest Indiana Network for Education, and the City of Evansville Diversity Lecture Series Board of Directors.

Stephen Bennett is a professor of political science at the University of Southern Indiana. Bennett is also professor emeritus of political science at the University of Cincinnati, where he was on the faculty from 1969 to 2001. He is the associate editor of Critical Review, a journal that deals with economic, social, and political issues, and he writes a column, “From the Heartland,” for the online magazine, PublicOpinionPros.com. His fields of concentration are American public opinion, electoral behavior, and political communication. Bennett has authored, co-authored, or co-edited half-a-dozen books, and roughly 100 articles, book chapters, and essays. He has presented papers at over 100 international, national, and regional conferences. Several of his publications focus on young people and politics.

Timothy Connors and George Buss are life long residents of Freeport, Illinois, and serve the students of Freeport High School. Tim is the Director of Speech and Theatre and George is the District Director of AVID. They will bring to life the program “A Discussion with President Lincoln and Judge Douglas” written by Freeport native and 45 year veteran Stephen Douglas interpreter, the late Richard F. Sokup. Both men will participate in the Debate Reunion Tour ’08 when Illinois and the nation celebrate the Lincoln Douglas Debates Sesquicentennial statewide in Springfield, Chicago, and Bement and all 7 original debate communities.

Nicole Etcheson spoke at the 3rd annual Lincoln Institute for Teachers. Etcheson's most recent book on pre-Civil War history entitled, Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era (University Press of Kansas, 2004), was a History Book Club selection. She is also the author of The Emerging Midwest: Upland Southerners and the Political Culture of the Old Northwest, 1787-1861 (Indiana University Press, 1996). Etcheson received a National Endowment for the Humanities summer stipend in 2004 to begin research on her new book project, The Union Home Front: Putnam County Indiana, in the Civil War Era. In addition to her books, Etcheson is also the author of numerous articles in professional journals as well as a frequent presenter at historical conferences. Etcheson comes to Ball State University with twelve years organizing for National History Day at the local and state level, as well as fourteen years of experience in teaching.

Brian Posler currently serves as the Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Southern Indiana. As AVPAA, he works with undergraduate education and general administration, where he oversees the University Core Curriculum; the Honors Program; University Division and Academic Skills. Posler also works with Student Affairs on issues related to student academic concerns, programming, advising, recruitment, and assessment. Prior to coming to USI, he served as Chair of the Political Science Department at Millikin University, in Decatur, Illinois. Posler writes in the areas of Congressional Parties, Progressive Ambition, and veto politics, and his works have appeared in Legislative Studies Quarterly, PS, and the Illinois Political Science Review. He has also developed two editions of teaching simulations for W.W. Norton and Co. entitled American Government: Simulations

David Zarefsky is the Owen L. Coon Professor of Argumentation and Debate, and Professor of Communication Studies, at Northwestern University, where he served as Dean of the School of Speech from 1988 through June 2000. Zarefsky’s research and teaching are in the areas of rhetorical history and criticism, argumentation and debate, and forensics. He is the author, co-author, or editor of eight books and the author of over 70 articles in professional journals. Two of his books have won the Winans-Wichelns Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Rhetoric and Public Address, an award of the National Communication Association: President Johnson’s War on Poverty: Rhetoric and History (University of Alabama Press, 1986) and Lincoln, Douglas, and Slavery: In the Crucible of Public Debate (University of Chicago Press, 1990). He is one of only three individuals to have won this award twice. At Northwestern, Zarefsky has taught courses in the study of American public discourse, with a special focus on the pre-Civil War years and on the 1960’s.

Agenda

Link to Teacher Resources supplied by Martha Beckort, of Lanesville Community School Corporation: http://www.lanesville.k12.in.us/lcsyellowpages/lincoln/lincoln.htm

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Resource Guide: How Events of the Late 1850s Shape Us: Reflections on Modern American Politics

Education Projects Summary--Lincoln Bicentennial Celebration

This program is an endorsed project of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, http://www.lincolnbicentennial.gov/, and the Indiana Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission http://www.in.gov/lincoln/.

This program has been made possible through a matching grant from the Indiana Humanities Council in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Humanities.

About Historic Southern Indiana:
Historic Southern Indiana is a heritage-based community outreach program of the University of Southern Indiana committed to promoting, enhancing, and protecting the historic, natural, and recreational resources of southern Indiana.

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