Published: October 06, 2008 11:15 am      

Hungry for History program returns

Second-annual lecture series begins Oct. 21 at Corbin Tourism Community Room, hosted by Corbin Main Street

Special to the Times-Tribune

Corbin Main Street’s Second Annual Hungry for History luncheon series kicks off this month. All events will begin at noon at the Corbin Tourism Community Room on Depot Street. Tickets are $8 and include lunch, catered by Season’s Restaurant. To reserve your seats for the series, contact Main Street Manager Sharae Myers at 606-258-8125.

Oct. 21 and Oct. 28

The series kicks off Oct. 21 and 28 with the lecture “Abraham Lincoln: Life, Leadership and Legacy” by Steven Wilson.

Wilson holds a master of arts in historic preservation from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. He is the assistant director and curator of the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum on the campus of Lincoln Memorial University, and an instructor of history and the managing editor of the Lincoln Herald.

Mr. Wilson also serves as a museum consultant with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the American Association of Museums. He is the author of five novels, “Voyage of the Gray Wolves,” “Between the Hunters and the Hunted,” “Armada,” “President Lincoln’s Spy” and “At President Lincoln’s Request.”

He writes a monthly column for www.military.com/history, on various aspects of military history. His Web site is www.stevenwilsonbooks.com.

Nov. 18 and Nov. 25

Dr. Barry Aron Vann concludes the series with talks on the Celtic heritage of early Appalachian settlers.

Dr. Vann is a native of southern Appalachia. An accomplished author, professor, speaker and administrator, Vann brings his great knowledge of Celtic heritage in Appalachia to Corbin Main Street in his lecture titled “The Wilderness Road and the Seed of Ulster.”

Vann holds two doctorates: a doctor of education degree in adult education from the University of Arkansas, and a doctor of philosophy degree dually awarded by the department of geographical and earth sciences and the school of divinity at the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

In addition, he also possesses a master of science degree in geosciences from Western Kentucky University.

Vann has served as the founding director of a dozen degree programs in such places as Delta State University in Mississippi and Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College.

Before coming to the University of the Cumberlands as the founding director of the doctor of education program, he served as the founding director of Lincoln Memorial University’s Appalachian Development.

As an author, Vann has published 20 articles and three books with a fourth titled “The Rise of Islam: A Geotheological Perspective” in the editing stages.

His writings have appeared in such publications as The Journal of Transatlantic Studies, The Journal of Historical Sociology, and the Geography of Religions and Belief Systems.

Vann has spoken in a number of settings, including his lecture on Celts and settlements in Appalachia that he delivered to the Appalachian literature class at University of the Cumberlands, taught by English Department Chair Dr. Thomas Frazier. Of Vann’s visit, Frazier notes that Vann is “engaging, knowledgeable, and entertaining when speaking about his subject matter.”

Dec. 9 and Dec. 16

Dr. R.W. (Bob) Reising will present the two-part series on “Jim Thorpe: The Greatest Athlete in the History of Sports, A Life of Triumph and Tragedy.”

Dr. Reising is professor of education at the University of the Cumberlands, where he heads the graduate program in literacy and literature education. Reising spent nine years in intercollegiate athletics as a baseball coach and a basketball and football recruiter. He is the former head baseball coach at the University of South Carolina (record: 31 wins and 24 losses) and assistant baseball coach at Duke. He co-authored a biography titled “Chasing Moonlight” on Dr. Archibald Wright “Moonlight” Graham, the one-time New York Giant outfielder who spent the majority of his adulthood as a school physician in Chisholm, Minnesota.

He is also contributing a chapter on Jim Thorpe to “Reconstructing Fame: Sport, Race, and Evolving Reputations,” scheduled for publication by the University Press of Mississippi in the summer or fall of 2008. He is currently writing his third book on Thorpe, “Jim Thorpe: The Rest of the Story.”