Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Best-selling author to speak at free Teacher Education Conference
 Dr. James Loewen, the best-selling author of Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, is the keynote speaker for the USI Teacher Education Department conference, “Revisionist History and the Multicultural Perspective: Implications for Teaching and Learning,” on Tuesday, April 25.Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States, said of Lies My Teacher Told Me, “Every teacher, every student of history, every citizen should read this book.” The book has sold more than 800,000 copies and continues to inspire K-16 teachers to encourage their students to challenge, rather than memorize, their textbooks. Loewen taught race relations for 20 years at the University of Vermont. Previously he taught at predominantly black Tougaloo College in Mississippi. He now lives in Washington, D.C., continuing his research on how Americans remember their past. His book Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong was published in 1999. Sundown Towns was named a Distinguished Book of 2005 by The Gustavus Myers Foundation. His other books include Mississippi: Conflict and Change (co authored), which won the Lillian Smith Award for Best Southern Nonfiction but was rejected for public school text use by the State of Mississippi, leading to the path breaking First Amendment lawsuit, Loewen et al. v. Turnipseed, et al. He also wrote The Mississippi Chinese: Between Black and White, Social Science in the Courtroom, and The Truth About Columbus. He has been an expert witness in more than 50 civil rights, voting rights, and employment cases. His awards include the First Annual Spivack Award of the American Sociological Association for sociological research applied to the field of intergroup relations, the American Book Award (for Lies My Teacher Told Me), and the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for Distinguished Anti-Racist Scholarship. He is also Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians. Loewen will deliver the keynote address at 7 p.m. in Carter Hall in the University Center. A book signing will follow. The conference also includes a luncheon at C.K. Newsome Community Center; a podcast presentation to Helfrich Park Middle School and Reitz High School students; and a workshop for Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation faculty, CAPE, and USI preservice teachers in the USI Education Center. Sponsors for the conference include USI’s Bower-Surheinrich College of Education and Human Services, CAPE, Carver Community Center, EVSC, and the Student Education Association. The conference is made possible through a Faculty Enhancement Award, a competitive grant sponsored through the Bower-Surheinrich College of Education and Human Services. All events, including the luncheon, are free and open to the public, but reservations should be made for the luncheon by calling 812/465-1290. For more information, contact Dr. Omowale Akintunde at 812/461-5321, Dr. Paul Parkinson at 812/461-5416, Dr. Jane Meyer at 812/465-7044, or Terri Alvey at 812/465-1290. |
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