For release: March 26, 2013
News and Media
Relations contact: Randy Weiler, 615-898-5131 or Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu
MURFREESBORO — Coinciding
with the statewide observation of Tennessee's Civil War Sesquicentennial,
award-winning author and historian Dr. Amanda Foreman will be the keynote speaker
for the seventh annual MTSU Scholars Week.
Foreman, author of “A World on Fire: An Epic History of Two
Nations Divided,” will provide a lecture starting at 7 p.m. Monday, April 1, in
the Student Union Ballroom.
Foreman’s book addresses the political, economic and
military relationships between England and its former American colonies as the
United States descended into the Civil War. A question-and-answer session and
book signing will follow her one-hour presentation, which is free and open to
the public.
Scholars Week is a weeklong celebration of the university’s
research and scholarly efforts. It will be held April 1-5. For a full list of activities,
visit http://tinyurl.com/ctw93pp.
University Provost Brad Bartel said Dr. Van West, director
of Tennessee Center for Historic Preservation, first suggested Foreman as a
Scholars Week keynote possibility.
“I thought she would be excellent for Scholar’s Week because
of the quality of her book, ‘A World on Fire,’ and that her appearance would
highlight our nationally known Public History program and the state’s
celebration of the 150th anniversary of Civil War events,” Bartel
said.
Bartel said Foreman will meet with MTSU students during her
campus visit.
In addition to “A World on Fire,” Foreman is the author of
the award-winning best seller, “Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire.”
She is the daughter of Carl Foreman, an Oscar-winning
screenwriter of many film classics including “The Bridge on the River Kwai,”
“High Noon” and “The Guns of Navarone.”
Born in London, raised in Los Angeles and educated in
England, Foreman attended Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University in New
York. She earned her doctorate in Eighteenth-Century British History from
Oxford University in 1998.
“Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire” was a No. 1 bestseller in
England and bestseller for many weeks in the United States. It has been translated
into 12 languages. The book was nominated for several awards and won the
Whitbreak Prize for Best Biography in 1999. It inspired a television
documentary, a radio play starring Dame Judi Dench and a movie, “The Duchess,”
starring Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes.
In addition to regularly writing and reviewing for
newspapers and magazines, Foreman also has served on a number of juries
including The Orange Prize, the Guardian First Book Prize and the National Book
Awards. She currently serves as a judge for the Dan David Prize, the PEN
Hessell-Tiltman Prize and the Man Booker Prize.
Foreman lives in New York with her husband and five
children.
About MTSU
Founded in 1911 as
one of three state normal schools for teacher training, MTSU is now the oldest
and largest public university in Middle Tennessee. With an enrollment of more
than 25,000 students, MTSU is the largest undergraduate university in
Tennessee.
MTSU remains
committed to providing individualized service in an exciting and nurturing atmosphere
where student success is the top priority. With a wide variety of nationally
recognized academic degree programs at the baccalaureate, master's and doctoral
levels, MTSU takes pride in educating the best and the brightest students from
Tennessee and around the world.
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Media welcomed
Note to media: Photo
of Foreman attached
A printable campus
map is available at http://tinyurl.com/MTParkingMap12-13.
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