“The Past in the Present: Historians Facing the Challenge of Their Own Times” at University of Richmond November 3, 2011

Medievalist to deliver two public lectures on the application of history to modern times

Patrick Geary, medievalist and the University of Richmond’s 2011-12 Douglas Southall Freeman Professor, will lecture on Nov. 3 and 10, 7:30 p.m., in Jepson Hall, Room 118.

The first lecture is “The Past in the Present: Historians Facing the Challenge of Their Own Times;” the second is “Nationalism, Internationalism and the Abuse of Medieval History in the New Europe.” Both are free and open to the public.

Geary is currently Distinguished Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles and is in residence at the University of Richmond’s Department of History this semester. In January, he will begin as professor of medieval history at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University. His books include “Living with the Dead in the Middle Ages” and “Women at the Beginning: Origin Myths from the Amazons to the Virgin Mary.”

A former president of the Medieval Academy of America, Geary has received several teaching awards and is the recipient of grants from the John Simon Guggenheim and Andrew W. Mellon foundations.

The Douglas Southall Freeman Professorship was established in 1991 to honor the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, journalist and University of Richmond alumnus. The Freeman professor teaches one course and delivers a series of public lectures.

For more information, call 804-289-8332.