Author and historian Scott Poole will be the guest speaker at the Phi Alpha Theta induction ceremony set for Wednesday, March 21, at 4:30 p.m. in the Wall Auditorium at Coastal Carolina University. The keynote address is free and open to the public.

The induction of 10 new members of Phi Alpha Theta will follow the keynote address.

Poole, an associate professor of history at the College of Charleston, is the author of six books. His latest, “Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting,” analyzes the American fascination with horror narratives in folk belief, religion and popular culture and how these narratives intersect with issues from American history, such as race, gender and sexuality.

Poole is a graduate of the Harvard Divinity School. He also earned a doctoral degree in American history from the University of Mississippi. Poole received the 2004 George C. Rogers Award for Best Book on South Carolina History for “Never Surrender: Confederate Memory and Conservatism in the South Carolina Upcountry.”

Phi Alpha Theta is the honor society for undergraduate, graduate students and professors of history. The society is a charter member of the Association of College Honor Societies and has over 350,000 members, with about 9,500 new members joining each year through 860 local chapters.

The Wall Auditorium is located on the ground floor of the E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration on the CCU campus.

For more information, contact John Navin at 843-349-2437 or by email at jnavin@coastal.edu.