UNT conference for educators of grades 4-12 to focus on teaching history through biography

Tuesday, September 2, 2014 - 14:42

What: "Leadership and Legacy Through Biography" -- The 2014 Teaching of History Conference presented by the University of North Texas Department of History. Featuring Randolph "Mike" Campbell, Lone Star Professor of Texas History at UNT, as keynote speaker. 

When: 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Sept. 20 (Saturday)

Where: UNT's Business Leadership Building, 1307 W. Highland St., Denton

Cost: $25 regular registration; $15 UNT faculty and staff member registration. UNT students may attend for free, but must still register in advance. Registration is online. The registration deadline is 5 p.m. Sept. 17 (Wednesday).

Contact: Marie Watkins in the UNT Department of History at 940-565-3197 and HistoryEvents@unt.edu.

DENTON (UNT), Texas -- Teachers for grades four through 12 and instructors of survey-level college courses will learn how to use stories about world leaders to interest their students in history during the University of North Texas' annual Teaching of History Conference Sept. 20 (Saturday).

Sponsored by UNT's Department of History, the conference will offer fact-based presentations about key figures who shaped Texas, the U.S. and the world from seven historians, with conference participants receiving suggestions for course content and teaching methods that they could incorporate into their lesson plans.

The conference is scheduled from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at UNT's Business Leadership Building, 1307 W. Highland St. in Denton. The regular registration fee is $25, with UNT faculty and staff members paying $15. UNT students may attend for free, but must register in advance. Registration is available online until 5 p.m. Sept. 17 (Wednesday). Teachers may receive five continuing education credits for attending.

Conference sessions will be held at 8:30 a.m. and 9:45 a.m. Topics for the sessions include civil rights activist Rosa Parks; the Spanish Franciscan missionary Antonio Margil de Jesus, who founded Texas' first mission churches during the early 1700s; Mahatma Gandhi; Winston Churchill; James Stephen Hogg, governor of Texas from 1891-1895; and the 19th-century Native American leader Tecumseh.

A keynote lecture given by Randolph "Mike" Campbell, Lone Star Professor of Texas History at UNT, will close the conference at 11 a.m. Campbell's topic is "Sam Houston in Texas: Practiced Leadership in Times of Crisis."

A UNT faculty member since 1966, Campbell received his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Virginia. He is the author of "Sam Houston and the American Southwest," "Gone to Texas: A History of the Lone Star State," "An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas, 1821--1865" and several other books. He has received several book awards and was elected to both the Philosophical Society of Texas and the Texas Institute of Letters.

Campbell serves as the chief historian of the Texas State Historical Association, which is housed at UNT, and is the editor of the association's Southwestern Historical Quarterly journal.

Note to reporters and editors: Members of the media may attend the conference for free. To arrange to attend, contact Nancy Kolsti in the UNT News Service at 940-565-3509 or nancy.kolsti@unt.edu.

UNT News Service
News_Service@unt.edu
(940) 565-2108