The SUNY New Paltz Distinguished Speaker Series will welcome 1998 Honorary Degree Recipient Dr. Nell Irvin Painter to campus on Thursday, Oct. 15. The event will be held in Lecture Center 100 at 7:30 p.m. and will include a book signing and dessert reception with the speaker.
Painter will deliver a talk titled “Sojourner Truth as Historical Person, Photographic Portrait, and American Icon,” drawing on her work as one of the most acclaimed contemporary scholars of the life of the abolitionist, women’s rights activist and namesake of the College’s own Sojourner Truth Library.
The lecture will consider Sojourner Truth’s significance, both as a historical figure and as an icon of the causes for which she spent her life fighting. It will examine through Truth’s writing and her use of photography the psychological cost of American enslavement and her assertion of identity as a person of worth.
Advanced ticket purchase is highly recommended. For further information and to purchase tickets please visit http://www.newpaltz.edu/speakerseries/ or call (845) 257-3880.
About Dr. Nell Irvin Painter
Painter is an award-winning scholar and writer, graduate of Harvard University and Edwards Professor Emeritus of American History at Princeton University. She is the author of seven books and numerous articles relating to the history of the American South. Painter’s latest book, The History of White People, guides us through more than 2000 years of Western civilization, illuminating not only the invention of race but the frequent praise of “whiteness.”
Her critically acclaimed book, Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol, won the nonfiction prize of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Painter is also the author of Southern History across the Color Line, which moves across the divides that have compartmentalized southern history, women’s history and African American history by focusing on relationships among men and women of different races.
About the Distinguished Speaker Series
Launched in 2008, the Distinguished Speaker Series hosts speakers twice annually in order to connect SUNY New Paltz alumni, students, faculty, staff and community members with highly accomplished alumni, authors, policy makers, leaders, scientists, media experts, business people and other luminaries.
SUNY New Paltz’s 2015 Distinguished Speaker Series is supported by the generosity of the following major sponsors: Buttermilk Falls Inn and Spa, Campus Auxiliary Services, Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation, The Dorsky Family & The Dorsky Foundation, Frida’s Bakery & Café, Liberty Mutual Insurance, M&T Bank, Sodexo, the SUNY New Paltz Foundation and the Sojourner Truth Library.
For information about the Distinguished Speaker Series and about community sponsorship opportunities, please call (845) 257-3972 or email us at development@newpaltz.edu.
