History Department Guest Lecture - Connor Williams Ph.D. Candidate '08

Prof. Connor Williams, Ph.D. Candidate ‘08, Yale University, will give a guest lecture, titled “Making Treason Odious Again: Perspectives from the Naming Commission and the Army’s War on the Lost Cause”

Sharing the Naming Commission’s story provides a rare opportunity to reflect—from start to
finish—on how the American government came to terms with the history and commemoration
of the Confederacy within the Department of Defense. It encourages audiences to consider how politics, history, memory, and cultures of commemoration intersected in our past and present, and how they may help chart our future. It allows us to reckon with our national narratives, evaluate our present priorities, and discuss the possibilities of tomorrow. And it does so through an easily approachable narrative featuring prominent players of our present and famous—or infamous—persons from our past.

Prior to his Ph.D at Yale, Connor earned a M.A. at Dartmouth College, where he wrote a thesis
on diasporic influences upon Frederick Douglass’ political thinking. Among other fellowships,
awards, and prizes he was a finalist for the Louis Pelzer Memorial Award, given to the best
article written by a Graduate Student. Connor has taught at Yale University, Southern
Connecticut State University and for the Yale College Writing Center. He has also worked for
Yale’s Manuscripts and Archives division and at the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of
Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition.

Sponsored by: The Department of History and the Rehnquist Professorship in American History and Culture