Thursday, September 12, 2013

[104] ‘MTSU On the Record’ examines race in America in the Obama era



MURFREESBORO — The next edition of the “MTSU On the Record” radio program will feature a visiting lecturer and expert on civil rights and racial history.

Host Gina Logue’s interview with Dr. Thomas J. Sugrue, this year’s 2013 Strickland Visiting Scholar Lecturer, will air from 5:30 to 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 16, and from 8 to 8:30 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 22, on WMOT-FM (89.5 and www.wmot.org).

Sugrue is scheduled to speak at MTSU at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26, in the State Farm Lecture Hall of the Business and Aerospace Building. His topic will be “Race, Inequality and Diversity in Obama’s America.”

A specialist in 20th century American politics and urban history, Sugrue is the David Boies Professor of History and Sociology and director of the Penn Social Science and Policy Forum at the University of Pennsylvania. His most recent book is “Not Even Past: Barack Obama and the Burden of Race (2010).”

“I think the perception of Obama, the reading of his comments on race one way or another, are the projections of people’s hopes that Obama is really a civil rights activist dressed as a president or fears that somehow Barack Obama is a polarizing figure who’s going to play on and exacerbate deep-rooted divisions and divides in America,” said Sugrue.

The Strickland Visiting Scholar program allows students to meet with renowned scholars whose expertise spans a variety of historical issues. The Strickland family established the program in memory of Dr. Roscoe Lee Strickland Jr., a longtime professor of European history at MTSU and the first president of the university’s Faculty Senate.

To listen to previous programs, go to the “Audio Clips” archives at www.mtsunews.com.

For more information, contact Logue at 615-898-5081 or WMOT-FM at 615-898-2800.

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