ISSUED: 28 October 2021
MEDIA CONTACT: Dana Costa
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — The author of this year’s Common Reading book, “Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom” will give a talk on Tuesday, November 9, at 7 p.m. in the Frank Center Theater. The event, which is sponsored by the Shepherd University Foundation, is free and open to the public.
Clinton is the Denman Professor of American History at the University of Texas at San Antonio and former president of the Southern Historical Association. She specializes in American History, with an emphasis on the history of the South, the American Civil War, American women, and African American history. Clinton has written for the History Channel and has authored and edited more than 25 books to date. She is editor of the series “History in the Headlines” and “Viewpoints on American Culture.” Clinton serves on the scholarly advisory board of both Ford’s Theatre and the Lincoln Cottage, as well as the journals Civil War Times and Civil War History. In 2016, Clinton received a Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, which funded her research on how mental illness was diagnosed and treated for Union soldiers during the Civil War.
“Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom” was selected as one of the year’s best non-fiction books in 2004 by the Chicago Tribune and the Christian Science Monitor.
About the Common Reading program
Shepherd’s Common Reading program provides a common academic experience for all first-year students. The program aims to provide a shared intellectual experience; create a sense of community; encourage reading; promote critical engagement of ideas; set academic expectations; create dialog between students, faculty, staff, and the community; promote interaction between Shepherd and the community; and introduce students to community resources. This year’s common reading book is “Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom” by Catherine Clinton, a biography of the woman most recognized for her work on the Underground Railroad.
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