Historic Tuscaloosa Lecture Series | 2024

Historic Tuscaloosa is excited to announce the return of its three-part lecture series, which explores the fundamentals and highlights broad aspects of heritage and historic preservation in Tuscaloosa.

This year’s lecture series will take place in Farrah Hall in Room 214 at the University of Alabama on July 25, August 22, and September 26. The series is not just about listening, but also about engaging. Each meeting includes interaction between participants and presenters through Q&A sessions at the end of each lecture, fostering a sense of community and shared learning.

Historic Tuscaloosa, formerly known as the Tuscaloosa County Preservation Society, is a non-profit organization that values the role of our local community in preserving our historical and cultural heritage. In our ongoing effort to engage and educate our community, we are thrilled to announce the return of our lecture series this year, offering a free and enriching experience to learn and expand one’s knowledge of our local history.

Beginning in July, the lectures will take place on the fourth Thursday of the month in room 214 in Farrah Hall at the University of Alabama. Lectures will start at 5:30 pm.

The series starts at 5:30 p.m. on July 25 with George Adair discussing his topic about the “Bryce Hospital Coal Mines.”

The series, sponsored by Historic Tuscaloosa, will continue at 5:30 p.m. on August 22 with Dr. Jennifer Feltman discussing “The Notre-Dame Restoration and Collaborative Research at UA.”

The final event will feature Dr. Sharony Green, who will discuss using the Jemison-Van de Graaff Mansion as a lab for University of Alabama student discoveries concerning our complicated shared past at 5:30 p.m. on September 26.

All the events in this exclusive series are free and open to the public. We eagerly anticipate the privilege of welcoming you to this enriching event.

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Historic Tuscaloosa will conclude its summertime lecture series on Thursday, September 28, at 5:30 p.m. The final presenter of this year’s lecture series will be Dr. Sharony Green, an associate professor of art history at the University of Alabama. This event is open to the public and free of charge.

For over a decade, University of Alabama historian Dr. Sharony Green has taken her students to and through local historic sites like Tuscaloosa's Jemison-Van de Graaff mansion to get them to think about our complicated shared past.

Join her as she discusses how her students learned to "unflatten" stories hovering around this once state-of-the-art dwelling in antebellum Alabama. How do we find meaning in the 19th-century politician-businessman Robert Jemison Jr.'s relationship with the once-enslaved-turned-well-respected architect Horace King? Or in King's own messy ties to the slaveholding South? Or the compelling role that Priscilla Cherokee Jemison played in her husband's business affairs?

Building on her lectures and a recently released book, Dr. Green shows us how her students encountered Tuscaloosa's historical past through walking tours, a music video they made, and other assignments. In fact, she left them with many entry points to think through the possibilities of our complicated shared past, present, and future, no matter the sometimes-trying news headlines.

One running thread throughout all her work is her deep interest in how human beings encounter one another in complicated ways. She addressed this topic in Teaching Public History Creatively in Alabama: About (Public) Face (Global Perspectives on Public History) (Routledge, April 2024).

https://www.routledge.com/Teaching-Public-History-Creatively-in-Alabama-About-Public-Face/Green/p/book/9781032564364