Edward L. Ayers
Edward Ayers
"The Shape of the Civil War"
Tuesday, March 3, 4 p.m.
Lowder 113
Edward Ayers has enjoyed a rare combination of success as a scholar and administrator. He is the author or editor of 10 books on the Civil War and the American South. His In the Presence of Mine Enemies: Civil War in the Heart of America won the 2004 Albert J. Beverage Award and the 2004 Bancroft Prize. Also, The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. He is also an enthusiastic proponent of digitizing the humanities projects. He helped found the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities and the Virginia Center for Digital History. He also works closely with the Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond. The above activity would fill several ordinary careers, but he is also currently President of the University of Richmond.
Among his many awards and honors, he was named National Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation in 2003, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2013, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Obama in a White House ceremony.
President Ayers’ visit and lecture are jointly sponsored with the College of Liberal Arts and Auburn’s Ralph Brown Draughton Library.