Barnard College Professor To Give Annual Jefferson Lecture At William Paterson University

Herbert Sloan, a professor at Barnard College who specializes in early American history, will present the 20th annual Abram Kartch/Thomas Jefferson Lecture at William Paterson University in Wayne on Wednesday, May 5.

More than 400 students from area high schools are expected to attend Sloan’s address, titled “Real Men Don’t Buy Brocade: Some Thoughts on Jefferson as Consumer,” which will begin at 9:45 a.m. in Shea Center on campus. A limited number of seats for the free program will be available to the public.

Sloan, a professor of history at Barnard, is the author of Principle and Interest: Thomas Jefferson and the Problem of Debt (1995). His other published works include “The Earth Belongs to the Living,” in
Jeffersonian Legacies, edited by Peter S. Onuf (1993). A graduate of Stanford University, Sloan earned a juris doctor degree from the University of Michigan, and two master’s degrees and a doctorate from Columbia University. He received the Campbell Moot Court Prize from the University of Michigan Law School and the Sons of the American Revolutionary Essay Prize from Columbia. Sloan also received the Gladys Brooks Junior Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award and the Emily Gregory Award for Teaching Excellence, both from Barnard College.

The Abram Kartch/Thomas Jefferson Lecture Series began in 1985 after Abram Kartch, a retired Paterson businessman and Jefferson scholar, provided William Paterson with an endowment to establish and continue the series. Designed to provoke discussion about the relationship of Jefferson’s words and thoughts to modern society, the series has presented lectures by many of the country’s leading Jefferson scholars, including Henry Steele Commager, James B. Shenton, Jan Lewis and Pauline Maier. Kartch, who in later years resided in Wayne, died in 1997 at age 93.

An essay contest for high school and college students will be conducted by the University in connection with the lecture. Certificates and monetary prizes will be awarded to students who write the two best essays on the theme developed in Sloan’s lecture.

Contest judges include Richard Kearney, William Paterson University librarian; Evelyn Gonzalez, William Paterson University associate professor of history, and Suzanne Bowles, William Paterson assistant professor of history.

For additional information about the event, contact George Robb, William Paterson University associate professor of history, at 973-720-3058.

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For Further Information, contact:

Mary Beth Zeman, Director, Public Relations 973-720-2966

4/15/04