Summer Warner of Paducah, Kentucky has been selected as the University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) student recipient of the Student Laureate Award from the Lincoln Academy of Illinois. Only one UIS student is honored with the prestigious award each academic year.

Dr. Ken Owen hosts a monthly podcast on subjects relating to early American History. A few subjects covered recently include: “The Constitution,” “Thomas Paine and Common Sense” and “Teaching the U.S. History Survey.” Discover the podcasts and why they get rave reviews!

The JuntoCast is part of a group blog named after Benjamin Franklin’s self-improvement club for aspiring gentlemen: The Junto.

Dr. Devin Hunter’s Material Culture class visited the Illinois Executive Mansion on September 16, 2015. The Graduate students are collaborating with the Executive Mansion to accurately identify, classify, analyze, and interpret artifacts owned and displayed in the Governor’s Mansion. Their reports are being shared with the Executive Mansion staff.

In February, 2016, Amy Hathaway, National Register and Survey Specialist for the  Illinois Historic Preservation Agency visited Dr. Devin Hunter’s Graduate Public History course, HIS: 505. Hathaway provided practical and technical knowledge for students to apply in their final projects for their Historic Environmental Preservation class and in their future historical careers.

Dr. Michael Burlingame, Chancellor Naomi Lynn Distinguished Chair in Lincoln Studies, presented a preview of his 2016 Lincoln Legacy Lecture to his master class and the UIS community on April 20th. Dr. Burlingame framed the problem as follows:

“The Reconstruction period after the Civil War saw a valiant attempt to make the promise implicit in the Emancipation a living reality. How and why did it fail in the nineteenth century, but laid the ground work for the Civil Rights Movement of the twentieth century?”