Public historian and preservationist Abigail Gautreau will present a lecture titled "What Happened in Selma: Civil Rights, White Supremacy and Historic Preservation in the 21st Century" on Tuesday, Sept. 5, at 5:15 p.m. The lecture, sponsored by CCU's Department of Anthropology and Geography and Department of History, is part of the Cultural Heritage Visiting Scholars Series. It is free and open to the public.

"Dr. Gautreau's work in the field of public history with various communities, commemoration, and Civil Rights movements is both timely and an important topic for the nation," said Katie Clary, CCU visiting assistant professor of public history and organizer of the series.

Gautreau will explore questions relating to history, culture and heritage, including the following: Whose cultural heritage do we preserve, and why? How do the institutions that preserve cultural heritage shape our ideas about the past and influence the present? Gautreau will draw upon efforts to preserve sites related to the voting rights movement in Selma, Ala., and the interpretation of apartheid in South Africa, which hold lessons for the interpretation of onoing situations throughout the U.S., said Clary. Gautreau is assistant professor of public history at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich. Her work in public history has embraced people's diverse experiences and memories of the past, and her current research draws from case studies on heritage creation as political acts from Selma and from Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa, which hold lessons for the interpretation of ongoing situations throughout the United States, said Clary.

"The issues that have recently been in the news after the tragedy of Charlottesville,Va, are not new, but the increased public interest in these issues is welcome, as it may result in more widespread understanding of the multiple meanings and roles of monuments," said David Palmer, the James L. Michie Endowed Professor of Historical Archaeology in the Department of Geography and Anthropology at CCU. "Dr. Gautreau's talk is timely, as memorials to the civil rights era activists and events are in many ways a counterpoint to monuments that celebrate Jim Crow era racism. In addition to her knowledge of heritage creation from work in Alabama, Dr. Gautreau will also bring insights from her research on the public history interpretation of apartheid in South Africa that is relevant to the current debates about monuments in the United States."

The lecture will be in Room 248 of the Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts Building, located at 133 Chanticleer Drive W. on the main Conway campus. Parking is available in lots directly adjacent near the back of the building or in J lot near the Singleton building.

For more information on the event, contact Palmer at 843-349-2266 or dpalmer1@coastal.edu.