Renowned historian Vernon Burton, who was recently appointed Burroughs Distinguished Professor of Southern History and Culture at Coastal Carolina University, will give a public lecture on the topic "The South as Other: The Southerner as Stranger." The lecture is scheduled for Thursday, March 6 at 3 p.m. in the Recital Hall of the Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts. The event is free and open to the public.

Burton, author of the critically-acclaimed "The Age of Lincoln," will assume the CCU Burroughs professorship in fall 2008. He will succeed Charles Joyner, who retired last year after holding the professorship since it was created in 1988.

A native of Royston, Ga., Burton grew up in Ninety Six. He is a graduate of Furman University, and he earned a Ph.D. in history from Princeton University. Burton is currently completing his last year as professor of history and sociology at the University of Illinois, where he is director of the Illinois Center for Computing in Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. His research and teaching interests focus on the American South, especially race relations, family, community, politics, religion and the intersection of humanities and social sciences.

Nationally recognized for his teaching, Burton was named the 1999 U.S. Research and Doctoral University Professor of the Year, an honor presented by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). He is the author or editor of 14 books and hundreds of articles. His "The Age of Lincoln," published in June 2007 by Hill & Wang, has received considerable notice for its bold interpretation of 19th-century American history from multiple perspectives-political, social, religious, military and economic.

The Burroughs Distinguished Chair in Southern History and Culture was created in 1988 by the late Henry Burroughs Sr. of Conway to stimulate the study and preservation of the history and culture of South Carolina's Waccamaw region.