Ongoing Programs
University of Tennessee History Lecture Series
The Department of History at the University of Tennessee is an active intellectual community with a strong commitment to bringing outstanding scholars to campus on a regular basis. The department accordingly sponsors several lecture series: The Milton M. Klein History Studies Fund Visiting Scholars Series, the Charles O. Jackson Memorial Lecture Series, and the Charles W. Johnson Lecture on World War II Series.
Since its inception in 1994, the Milton M. Klein Visiting Scholars Series has featured distinguished historians of early American history, American legal history, and historiography. Past speakers include Dr. Michael Kammen, Dr. Stanley N. Katz, Dr. Linda K. Kerber, Dr. Jack P. Greene, and Dr. Lance Banning. Spring 2006, Dr. Gail Bederman, author of Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the U.S., 1890-1917, gave a talk entitled "Revisiting Frances Wright’s Nashoba: Slavery, Sex, and Liberty in Tennessee, 1825-1827” This lecture series honors the career of the first University Historian of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Milton M. Klein, who served as the Alumni Distinguished Service Professor of History at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville until his retirement in 1984. Above all else, this lecture series reflects Dr. Klein's lifelong commitment to making the study of history dynamic and accessible to all people.
The Charles O. Jackson Memorial Lecture Series is the newest lecture series sponsored by the Department of History. In Fall 2006, Dr. Nan Woodruff, professor of History at Pennsylvania State University, and author of As Rare as Rain: Federal Relief in the Great Southern Drought of 1930-31 and American Congo: The African American Freedom Struggle in the Delta, gave a talk entitled “American Congo: The Elaine Massacre of 1919 and its Legacy”. The lecture series honors the career of the late Charles O. Jackson, a brilliant scholar of American culture and society who, together with Charles W. Johnson, wrote City Behind a Fence: Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 1942-1946, an outstanding blend of social and military history published in 1981. Charles Jackson was an esteemed member of the department from 1969 to 1997.
The Charles W. Johnson Lecture on World War II Series is sponsored by the History Department, the Center for the Study of War and Society, the Department of Modern Foreign Languages, and the Normandy Scholars Program. During Spring Semester 2006, the series featured a talk by Dr. Edward M. Coffman, "The Beginnings of the Twentieth Century American Army" Dr. Coffman is an emeritus professor of History at The University of Wisconsin-Madison. This series honors the career of the late Charles W. Johnson, a member of the department from 1965 to 1998. In 1984 "Chuck" Johnson founded the World War II Project, the forerunner of today's Center for the Study of War and Society, which he directed until his retirement. The Charles W. Johnson Lecture on World War II is thus a fitting tribute to one of the department's most accomplished scholars.