History Professor to Speak at Coker’s
07-08 Opening Convocation

For more information, contact James Jolly, director of marketing and communications, at 843.383.8018

Hartsville, S.C. — History professor Shawn Lay will address “Critical Thinking in the 21st Century” at Coker College’s 2007-08 opening convocation on Thursday, August 23 at 7:30 p.m. in the Watson Theater of the Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Performing Arts Center. Admission is free and the public is invited to attend.

Lay’s professional training has focused on United States social, political, and urban history, of the late 19th and 20th centuries. He is the author of the well-received books “War, Revolution, and the Ku Klux Klan” (Texas Western Press, 1985), “The Invisible Empire in the West” (University of Illinois Press, 1992, 2004), and “Hooded Knights on the Niagara” (New York University Press, 1995). Lay has also published essays and reviews in a number of dictionaries, encyclopedias, and major scholarly journals, including the Journal of American History, American Historical Review, Journal of Southern History, Reviews in American History, Western Historical Quarterly, and Georgia Historical Quarterly.

In 2006 Lay  received an Excellence in Teaching Award from South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities. In 2002 Coker College students selected Lay as Master Professor of the Year and the S.C. Commission on Higher Education named him a Governor’s Distinguished Professor for “exceptional teaching performance in an institution of higher learning.”

Lay has taught at the university and college level for more than 19 years. He joined the Coker faculty in 1996. Prior to that, he taught at the State University of New York at Buffalo and the University of Georgia.

During his tenure at Coker, Lay has developed a number of new history courses, including popular offerings on the American Revolution, the Civil War, the Vietnam War, and the African American Experience. In addition to teaching, he serves as chair of the department of history, philosophy and religion.

Lay holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in history from the University of Texas at El Paso and a Ph.D. in history from Vanderbilt University.

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August 20, 2007