Coastal Carolina University President Michael T. Benson will discuss and sign copies of his new book, Daniel Coit Gilman and the Birth of the American Research University, during CCU’s Faculty Scholar Lecture Series event on Tuesday, March 28, at 4 p.m. in the Edwards Building Recital Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Press, the book’s publisher, Benson claims in the publication that Gilman’s enduring legacy will always be as the father of the modern research university – a uniquely American invention that remains the envy of the entire world.

Benson also explains in the book how many university elements that are commonplace today – the graduate fellowships, the emphasis on primary investigations and discovery, the funding of top laboratory and research spaces, the scholarly journals, the university presses, and the sprawling health sciences complexes with teaching hospitals – were put in place by Gilman at JHU.

In addition to his lecture at CCU, Benson will participate in a JHU Press Author Meet and Greet on April 14 during the school’s alumni weekend, where he will be interviewed by University President Ronald Daniels. In May, Benson is scheduled to hold a book discussion at the University of Notre Dame.

Gilman’s career included serving as the third president of the University of California; the first president of JHU, a position he held for 25 years; and as one of the original founders of the Association of American Universities. Handpicked by Andrew Carnegie himself, Gilman also served as the first president of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Benson also is the author of Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel and the coauthor of College for the Commonwealth: A Case for Higher Education in American Democracy.

Benson graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in political science and double minors in English and history from Brigham Young University in 1990. He completed his doctorate in modern history from the University of Oxford (St. Antony’s College) in 1995, where he was a Rotary Foundation Scholar and recipient of the Oxford Graduate Overseas Fellowship. He also earned a master’s degree cum laude in nonprofit administration in 2011 from the University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business, where he was the recipient of the prestigious Father Theodore Hesburgh Founder’s Award. In 2021, Benson completed a Master of Liberal Arts from Johns Hopkins University, where he was initiated into the Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs National Honor Society.