AU and the Society of Nineteenth Century Historians host 31st annual symposium
By Rakiyah Lenon | Editor in chief
Augusta University and the Society of Nineteenth Century Historians hosted the 31st annual Symposium on the 19th Century Press, the Civil War and Free Expression on Nov. 2-4.
The three-day event was held in the JSAC Coffeehouse on the Summerville campus, as more than 50 speakers discussed a variety of topics, including African Americans in the press, the Civil War, reporting the arts, presidents and media myths.
For three decades, the event had been held at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga under the guidance of David Sachsman, who founded the symposium. Works presented at the symposium were often composed into books (there are nine of them now) and other historical papers, providing a way for historians to share their findings with the public.
Although Sachsman passed away in the summer of 2022, members wanted to continue the tradition he had begun.
David Bulla, chair of AU’s Department of Communication, helped organize this year’s symposium. This year marked the first one that was hosted outside of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
“The whole idea was to create a repository of papers that could become chapters in various books about Civil War journalism,” he said. “Dr. Sachsman was really good at getting us to produce high quality articles, book chapters. It succeeded quite well and none of us want it to go away.”
Sessions at the symposium were free and open for the public to attend. (photo by Rakiyah Lenon)
Melissa DeVelvis, assistant professor of history at AU, moderated a session at the symposium entitled, “Reconstruction and the Public: A Roundtable,” which featured panelists Brenda Baratto, president of the confederation of South Carolina Local Historical Societies; AU history student Courtney Wilson; Redcliffe Plantation State Historic Site Park Manager Chelsea Stutz, and Park Interpreter Ashley Rust.
DeVelvis said it is important to involve a wider audience with learning about history subjects like Reconstruction in ways outside of academics. She said that though historians and academic professionals continue to make discoveries about key aspects in history like Reconstruction, the public might miss out on this information.
“To what extent has it actually reached the general public? Not so much,” she said.
She added, “I wanted to see how we could talk about history to the public.”
From left to right, Melissa DeVelvis, Courtney Wilson, Brenda Baratto, Ashley Rust and Chelsea Stutz.(photo by Rakiyah Lenon)
Bulla said that the hope is for the conference to continue, which will allow the next generation of historians to continue sharing and presenting their work.
“He really left a wonderful conference and series of books,” Bulla said, speaking of Sachsman. “And collateral stuff like friendships, which are in some ways just as important as the academic stuff.”
All sessions were free and open for the public to attend.
For more information, visit the website at: https://sites.google.com/view/19thcenturyhistorians/home .
Contact Rakiyah Lenon at rlenon@augusta.edu.
