President Ayers to teach about American South in Gilder Lehrman Institute class for teachers, park interpreters

University of Richmond President Edward Ayers will teach a week-long enrichment seminar for teachers, historical society staff and National Park Service interpreters on the history of the American South June 26-July 3 at the university.

Sponsored by The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the seminar will be the fifth Ayers has taught at Richmond. He previously taught and co-led Gilder Lehrman summer seminars for more than 10 years before joining the university.

The seminar will cover the central role the South has played in American history. Major themes will include the development of the colonies and the new nation, emergence and spread of slavery, immigration and development of the West, the Civil War, emancipation, the creation of segregation and the civil rights struggle.

A historian of the American South, Ayers was named a National Professor of the Year in 2003 by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Endowment for the Advancement of Teaching. He has written and edited 10 books. “The Promise of the New South:  Life after Reconstruction” was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. “In the Presence of Mine Enemies: The Civil War in the Heart of America, 1859-1863” won the Bancroft Prize for distinguished writing in American history.

Ayers created “The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War,” a website that has attracted millions of visitors.  

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving and enriching American history education through a wide range of programs and resources for teachers, students, scholars and history enthusiasts. Its 2012 summer institutes around the world will offer more than 1,200 participants the chance to study American history with leading scholars.

For more information about Gilder Lehrman summer institutes, visit www.gilderlehrman.org/teacherseminars.

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