Acclaimed historian Vernon Burton is the keynote speaker for the Phi Alpha Theta regional history conference, scheduled for Friday, April 9 and Saturday, April 10 at Coastal Carolina University. The two-day conference features lectures and panel discussions that are free and open to the public.

Burton, the University's Burroughs Professor of Southern History and Culture and author of two books on Lincoln, will talk on "The Age of Lincoln" at 8:45 a.m. Saturday in the Edwards Recital Hall.

Conference sessions on Friday begin at 1 p.m. in the E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration and run to 5 p .m. Saturday sessions in the Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts run from 8:45 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Topics of presentations and panels include Colonial America, the Civil War, the Cold War, 20th Century American Culture, the American South and more.

Dozens of CCU students and faculty will attend and present papers, along with 75 students and faculty from 12 other colleges and universities in the Carolinas and Tennessee.

The conference is sponsored by Coastal's chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the national honor society for students of history. Coastal's chapter has inducted 67 new members this school year.

For more information, call 349-2421.