History Across the Humanities Conference this week on campus

The V.W. Starr History Across the Humanities Conference will be Thursday and Friday, Feb. 22 and 23, at the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor on Wood Street on the campus of Youngstown State University.

The conference, sponsored by the Alpha Gamma Beta chapter of the Phi Alpha Theta National History Honor Society, is designed for humanities students and anyone interested in the humanities.

The keynote speaker is Leonne Hudson, associate professor of History at Kent State University. Hudson earned a bachelor’s degree from Voorhees College and master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Kent. His specialty is 19th Century U.S. history and his research interests include the Mexican War and the Civil War era, particularly the military contributions of black troops to the Union effort. Hudson has a research project in progress on the reaction of black soldiers to the death of Abraham Lincoln.

Registration is free for YSU students, $20 for non-YSU students and $30 for non-students. For more information contact Cody Cooper, 330-941-1314 or cmcooper01@student.ysu.edu, or Carmella Cadusale at mccadusale@americorps.outlook.com. Or, visit https://sites.google.com/site/hathconference/.

The conference is named in memory of Valerie Waksmunski Starr, a graduate student in YSU's History Department who conceptualized the idea for the event and served as its first chair. She battled with breast cancer her entire graduate career and passed away June 29, 2015.