W. Fitzhugh Brundage, an eminent U.S. historian and author of Civilizing Torture: An American Tradition, will present the Robert G. Bone Distinguished Lecture at 7 p.m. Thursday, November 14, in the Old Main Room of the Bone Student Center at Illinois State University.
Brundage is the William B. Umstead Professor of History at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. His talk, “The Third Degree: Policing and the American Tradition of Torture,” is free and open to the public. The talk is also part of the Illinois State University Speaker Series.
Civilizing Torture: An American Tradition, which was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in history, explores how Americans have resorted to torture during moments of crisis and have attempted to reconcile its use with American democratic ideals. It is one of seven books Brundage has published. His other works include the award-winning Lynching in the New South and The Southern Past: A Clash of Race and Memory.
Brundage has held fellowships from the National Humanities Center, the American Philosophical Society, and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.
The Robert G. Bone Distinguished Lecture is sponsored by the University’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Department of Politics and Government, and Department of History.
The Illinois State University Speaker Series seeks to bring innovative and enlightening speakers to the campus with the aim of providing the community with a platform to foster dialogue, cultivate enriching ideas, and continue an appreciation of learning as an active and lifelong process.
For additional information, or for those who need special accommodations to attend this event, call (309) 438-2159.
