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 From a pool of 51 highly competitive nominations, Dr.
Onuora is one of 25 faculty members selected to participate in the
seminar, which will be held June 23–27, 2019, at Yale University in
New Haven, Conn.
In announcing the selection of participants, CIC President Richard
Ekman said, "Strengthening the teaching of American history at
colleges and universities is of critical importance to maintaining
informed citizen participation in a democracy. The Civil War has
been used—and misused—to bolster contemporary arguments about
conflict resolution, race, and the role of America in the world. The
seminar will provide participating faculty members with unusual
insight into the selective public memory through the years about
America's defining event, the Civil War. Participants in the seminar
will be better prepared to teach a new generation of students how to
understand major social and political issues of today in light of
history, the different perspectives in different eras, and recent
debates over Civil War monuments and symbols. We believe that Dr.
Onuora will play a strong role in the seminar."
"Dr. Onuora's selection for the CIC American History Seminar is a
wonderful opportunity for her to connect with a very select group of
peers from across the nation, and it is a tribute to the outstanding
work she has done and continues to do as a teacher and scholar,"
said Millikin Provost Dr. Jeff Aper. "Her work in the School of
Education transcends traditional Teacher Education curriculum, as
she has demonstrated an extraordinary ability to reach across
disciplinary lines to lend remarkable depth and breadth to her
teaching and scholarship related to literacy and pedagogy,
especially in work with underrepresented populations."
Dr. Aper added, "Dr. Onuora draws from fields like Education,
History, and Literature to find new and very effective ways to
advance our understanding of and effectiveness in preparing
teachers, engaging communities and advancing the mission of the
university as a dynamic, living set of commitments to our students
and the larger world. I am very glad and proud about her selection
for participation in this experience and know she will make the most
it, both professionally for herself, and as a source of information,
inspiration and opportunity for the rest of us based on all she’ll
bring back with her from the seminar."
The seminar will be led by David W. Blight, Class of 1954 professor
of American History and director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for
the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University.
Blight is the author of "Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom;
Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory," which received
numerous awards including the Bancroft Prize, the Frederick Douglass
Prize, and the Merle Curti Prize; "American Oracle: The Civil War in
the Civil Rights Era," which received the Anisfield-Wolf Award for
best nonfiction book on racism and human diversity; and "A Slave No
More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Narratives of
Emancipation." Blight was elected a member of the Society of
American Historians in 2002.
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Since 2004, he has served as a member of the board of trustees of
the New-York Historical Society. He also has served on the board for African
American Programs at Monticello in Charlottesville, Va. Blight was on the board
of advisors to the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and was involved in
planning numerous events to commemorate the sesquicentennial of the Civil War.
He has led or co-led many seminars for CIC faculty members on slave narratives
and the scholarship and public history of slavery.
"I am honored to be selected for this week-long institute where I
will have an amazing opportunity to learn from noted historian David Blight at
Yale University and meet a cadre of colleagues who are passionate about Civil
War history and its continued impact on America today," said Dr. Onuora. "I am
particularly excited to engage in extended research about collective memory and
the Civil War as well as dialogue around contemporary controversies that are
informed by Civil War history and the Reconstruction Era.; and, I can't wait to
apply what I learn to new course offerings for Millikin's African American
Studies minor."
Seminar participants will assess the historical memory of the most divisive
event in American history—the Civil War. Participants will consider works on
Civil War memory, discuss theoretical texts on the nature and significance of
collective memory across time and cultures, and dive deeply into three
anniversary moments in this history: the 50th (1911–1915); the 100th
(1961–1965); and the 150th (2011–2015). The seminar also will consider the
recent and current crises and debates over Civil War monuments and symbols from
the 2015 massacre in Charleston, S.C., to the recent protests and violence in
Charlottesville, Va., and beyond. Above all, the seminar aims to provide a forum
in which to comprehend and analyze why the slavery, Civil War, and
Reconstruction epoch has remained an unending dilemma in American historical
consciousness.
For more information, visit the CIC website at cic.edu/AmericanHistory.
The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) is an association of 770 nonprofit
independent colleges and universities, state-based councils of independent
colleges, and other higher education affiliates, that works to support college
and university leadership, advance institutional excellence, and enhance public
understanding of independent higher education's contributions to society. CIC is
the major national organization that focuses on services to leaders of
independent colleges and universities and state-based councils. CIC offers
conferences, seminars, publications, and other programs and services that help
institutions improve educational quality, administrative and financial
performance, student outcomes, and institutional visibility. It conducts the
largest annual conferences of college and university presidents and of chief
academic officers in the United States. Founded in 1956, CIC is headquartered at
One Dupont Circle in Washington, DC. For more information, visit cic.edu.
[Millikin University Director of
Media Relations Dane Lisser]
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