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September 14, 2007
WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY TO OBSERVE CONSTITUTION DAY ON SEPTEMBER 17
—Carol Berkin, Presidential Distinguished Professor of History, Baruch College,
to lecture at 12:30 p.m.
William Paterson University in Wayne will observe Constitution Day on Monday, September 17 with a lecture by Carol Berkin, Presidential Distinguished Professor of History at Baruch College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York, titled “Thinking Continentally: The Creation of the U.S. Constitution.” The event, which is free and open to the public, begins at 12:30 p.m. in the David and Lorraine Cheng Library Auditorium.
Federal legislation signed in December 2004 requires all educational institutions that receive federal funds to implement an educational program on September 17 each year that provides students with increased awareness and appreciation of the U.S. Constitution, which was signed September 17, 1787. When September 17 falls on a weekend or a federal holiday, Constitution day may be celebrated the preceding or following week.
The program is sponsored by the American Democracy Project of William Paterson University, part of a nationwide initiative by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) that seeks to increase civic engagement levels of U.S. students attending public colleges and universities in the 21st century. Other campus sponsors include the Office of the Provost, the Office of Student Development, the David and Lorraine Cheng Library, and the Department of Political Science.
Berkin, a specialist in early American and women’s history, is the author of several books, including Jonathan Sewall: Odyssey of an American Loyalist (1974); Women of America: A History (1980); First Generations: Women of Colonial America (1996); and Women’s Voices/Women’ Lives: Documents in Early American History (1998). She has worked as a consultant on several PBS and History Channel documentaries, including, The Scottsboro Boys, which was nominated for an Academy Award as the best documentary of 2000. She has also appeared as a commentator on screen in New York, the PBS series by Ric Burns, and in the History Channel series, The Founding Fathers, both of which aired in 2000. A graduate of Barnard College, she earned her M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University where she won the Bancroft Dissertation Award.
For additional information, contact the American Democracy Project at William Paterson University at 973-720-3921.
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www.wpunj.edu
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