ISSUED: 15 February 2016
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Two Shepherd University professors will be among those making presentations this spring during the Historic Shepherdstown Commission (HSC) speakers series.
Dr. Dawn Raines Burke, professor of education, will kick off the series on Wednesday, March 2, with a presentation titled “John Storer: A Renaissance Man for the Nineteenth-Century Shenandoah Valley.”
Burke is the author of the book “An American Phoenix: A History of Storer College from Slavery to Desegregation, 1865-1955.” Storer was a Maine philanthropist who donated $10,000 to help establish the college.
Dr. Benjamin Bankhurst, assistant professor of history, will make a presentation on May 4 titled “The French and Indian War: Impact of the Conflict Upon the Scots Irish in Appalachia and Ireland.”
Before coming to Shepherd in the fall of 2015, Bankhurst was in London where he was a guest teacher at the London School of Economics, a visiting lecturer at King’s College London, a visiting lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University, and a visiting lecturer at Florida State University London Study Centre
All the presentations are free and open to the public. They will begin at 7 p.m. in the Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education (formerly Byrd Center for Legislative Studies) auditorium. For more information, contact Teresa McLaughlin, Historic Shepherdstown Commission administrator, at 304-876-0910 on Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday or by email at info@historicshepherdstown.com.
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