Events and News

SPRING 2020 EVENTS

DIGGING COLONIAL TEXAS! - Archaeology and History at San Felipe de Austin State Historic Site - Tuesday February 4th, 2020. 

Digging Colonial Texas: Archaeology and History at San Felipe de Austin State Historic Site; with Sarah Chesney; February 4; Student Session 2:30 - 3:30pm Landes Auditorium; Public Lecture 5 - 7pm Caroline Room Spindletop Gladys City Boomtown Museum; lamar.edu/historyandculture

 

Dr. Sarah Chesney knows a thing or two about digging up dirt. As site archaeologist at the San Felipe de Austin State Historic Site, she hunts for new evidence to better understand early nineteenth-century Texas.
 
Join us on Tuesday, February 4, as we welcome Dr. Chesney to Lamar University for a program she's called "Digging Colonial Texas: Archaeology and History at the San Felipe de Austin State Historic Site." Founded in 1824, the town of San Felipe became the principal settlement in Stephen F. Austin's first colony in Mexican Texas. Fleeing residents burned it to the ground in 1836, never to return. Ever since, scholars have worked to make sense of fleeting traces and charred remains as they piece together a picture of daily life during a pivotal era in Texas history.

As an added bonus, Dr. Chesney has promised to bring artifacts to discuss with the audience. Take it from us, this is one you don't want to miss.
  • Student Session (open to members of the Lamar community) - Feb. 4, 2:30-3:30 PM, Landes Auditorium, Galloway Building
  • Public Lecture (free and open to all) - Feb. 4, 5:00-7:00 PM, Caroline Room, Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum

WILLIAMS’ GANG: A NOTORIOUS SLAVE TRADER AND HIS CARGO OF BLACK CONVICTS - Book Talk and Lecture by Lamar Professor  Jeff Forret - Tuesday February 18th, 2020. 

Jeff Forret WILLIAMS’ GANG: A NOTORIOUS SLAVE TRADER AND HIS CARGO OF BLACK CONVICTS, February 8, Public Lecture 5-7pm, Executive Event Space, Wayne A. Reaud Administration Building, lamar.edu/historyandculture

William H. Williams operated a slave pen in Washington, D.C., for more than 20 years. In 1840, he purchased 27 enslaved convicts, then conveyed them illegally into New Orleans, allegedly while en route to the foreign country of Texas, prompting a decades-long series of courtroom dramas. Williams' Gang supplies a compelling portrait of the economy, society and politics of the Old South.

For the quote: 

“An expert autopsy of crime and punishment in the Old South with striking relevance for today….[Jeff] Forret…shows the guts of a horrific injustice that supports ongoing structural violence against African Americans.”

  • Public Lecture (free and open to all) - Feb. 18, 5:00-7:00 PM, Reaud Event Space

CELEBRATING THE TEXAS GULF COAST THROUGH STORY - Book Talk/Signing with Author and 2019 Summerlee Book Prize Honorable Mention, Johnnie Bernhard -  Tuesday March 3rd, 2020

celebrating the texas gulf coast through story, author Johnnie Bernhard; March 3; Student session 2:30 - 2:30 pm Landes Auditorium; Public Lecture 5-7pm Executive Event Space Wayne A Reaud Administration Building; lamar.edu/historyand culture

Johnnie Bernhard is passionate about reading and writing, and her passion shows in her novels, as she examines the definition of family, the role immigrants play in American culture, and life on the Gulf Coast. Her first novel, A Good Girl, was shortlisted in both the 2015 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Writing Competition and the 2017 Kindle Book Award for Literary Fiction.

Bernhard’s second novel, How We Came to Be, was a finalist in the 2017 Faulkner-Wisdom Competition and received numerous other honors, including Honorable Mention for the Summerlee Book Prize, presented by the Center for History and Culture at Lamar University.

Her third novel, Sisters of the Undertow, debuts Feb. 27, 2020 and is a recommended read by Deep South Magazine.

Johnnie Bernhard’s work has appeared in Heart of Ann Arbor, Houston Style, World Oil, Suburban Reporter of Houston, Southern Writers Magazine, Texas Review, Southern Literary Review, and many other publications.

  • Student Session (open to members of the Lamar community) - Mar. 3, 2:30-3:30 PM, Landes Auditorium, Galloway Building
  • Public Lecture (free and open to all) - Mar. 3, 5:00-7:00 PM, Reaud Executive Event Space