September 12, 2000

Contact: Marvin Hunt, Continuing Education, (785) 864-7857; or Theodore Wilson, history, 864-9460.

Historian to discuss science and religion at conference

LAWRENCE - A noted historian of evolution, science and church history, Ronald Numbers of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will speak at the luncheon of the Mid-America Conference on History at 12:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 22, at the University of Kansas.

Numbers will speak on "Creation, Evolution and Intelligent Design: From Scopes to Kansas," in the Adams Alumni Center. He will address about 150 historians attending the three-day annual conference.

The conference banquet at 7 p.m. Sept. 22 at the Holiday Inn Holidome, will feature Elaine Tyler May, American studies professor from the University of Minnesota, speaking on family values and politics in post-World War II America. Most sessions of the Sept. 21 to 23 conference will be conducted in the Kansas Union. The annual meeting is co-sponsored by the history departments of KU, Southwest Missouri State University, the University of Arkansas and Oklahoma State University, and by a number of offices at KU.

Numbers also will join a panel discussing "The Evolution Controversy in Historical Perspective" at 2 p.m. Sept. 22 in Woodruff Auditorium of the Kansas Union. William Wagnon, a Kansas Board of Education member who supports teaching evolution and is a history professor at Washburn University in Topeka, will also join the panel.

Numbers' books include "God and Nature: Historical Essays on the Encounter between Christianity and Science," "The Creationists: The Evolution of Scientific Creationism," and "Darwinism Comes to America."

A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Numbers is president-elect of the History of Science Society and the American Society of Church History. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he is the Hilldale and William Coleman professor of the history of science and medicine.

Conference sessions range from ancient to contemporary history, although the majority of the topics are focused on modern and U.S. history, said Theodore Wilson, conference coordinator and KU history professor. Special panels will address the Boxer Rebellion, the origins of the Civil War, and integrating local history into the secondary school and college curriculum.

A session at 1 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21, in Budig Hall will feature librarians from KU and the Kansas State Historical Society discussing how historians are using the Internet.

A roundtable on "Teaching the Environment" will be dedicated to the memory of the late John G. Clark, a KU historian who died May 2, 2000. Presentations include a eulogy by Wilson, "History in the Active Tense: John Clark, 1932-2000."

For a complete program call Marvin Hunt, KU Continuing Education, (785) 864-7857 or see the Web pages at: http://www.kuce.org/app/mch/ or http://www.clas.ku.edu/history/.

Some conference papers of local interest will include:

  • "Understanding Student Life at Haskell Institute, Lawrence, Kansas, 1884-1894," by Eric Anderson, KU doctoral student from Topeka.

  • "The Lebanese in Oklahoma: Sectarian Identity and Immigration History," by Kristin Shamas, University of Oklahoma

  • "From George Washington to George Washington Carver: School-Naming Practices in Kansas City, Missouri, 1930-1954," by Peter Moran, Kansas State University graduate.

  • "Ignored Voice: Chester Lewis' Pursuit to Revive the Civil Rights Cause in Kansas," by Crystal Johnson, KU master's degree student from Lawrence. (Lewis was a Wichita attorney.)

  • "Race and Inequality at the University of Kansas: The Jim Crow Years, 1900-1950," by William Tuttle, KU professor of history.

  • "Hispanic Voices: Las Poetas y Corridos of the People of Kansas," by Leonard D. Ortiz, KU doctoral student from Sanger, Calif.

  • "Your House is a House of Pleasures: A Domestic Study of the Chouteau Family in 19th-Century St. Louis," by Robyn D. McMillin, University of Oklahoma.

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