The community is invited to join the Lander University College of Behavioral and Social Sciences for a lively conversation with Dr. Vernon Burton, who currently serves as the Judge Matthew J. Perry Distinguished Chair of History at Clemson University. This event will take place Thursday, Sept. 28, at 6 p.m. in the Abney Cultural Center Auditorium. Burton will discuss his life and work as a historian, reflect upon his most important books and share his thoughts about the culture and politics of the South. The event is free and open to the public.

Orville Vernon Burton is the inaugural Judge Matthew J. Perry Distinguished Chair of History, and is a professor of global Black studies, sociology and anthropology, and computer science at Clemson University. He directed the Clemson CyberInstitute from 2010 to 2016. In 2022, Burton received the Clemson University Alumni Award for Outstanding Achievements in Research. In 2018, he was part of the initial University Research, Scholarship and Artistic Achievement Award group of scholars. In 2016, he received the College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities Dean’s Award for “Excellence in Research.” He received the college’s award for “Outstanding Achievement in Service” in 2019.

Burton is a prolific author and scholar, with more than twenty authored or edited books, nearly three hundred articles and numerous digital humanities projects. His book, “Justice Deferred: Race and the Supreme Court” (Harvard University Press, 2021), which was co-authored with Armand Derfner, has been featured at numerous regional and national academic conferences related to the social sciences. Meanwhile, “The Age of Lincoln” (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2007) won the Chicago Tribune Heartland Literary Award for Nonfiction. One reviewer proclaimed, “If the Civil War era was America’s ‘Iliad,’ then historian Orville Vernon Burton is our latest Homer.” His book, “In My Father’s House Are Many Mansions: Family and Community in Edgefield, South Carolina” (University of North Carolina Press, 1985), was featured at sessions of the Southern Historical Association and the Social Science History Association annual meetings.

In addition to Burton, the event will also include presentations by Dr. Bobby J. Donaldson, director of the Center for Civil Rights History and Research, and Christopher B. Thomas, director of the Benjamin Mays Historical Preservation Site.

A reception will follow. Burton’s books will be available for sale prior to and after the event.

Please visit www.lander.edu/events for updates and to confirm event times and venues. For questions regarding this event, please contact Dr. Daniel Harrison, professor of sociology at Lander, at 864-388-8779.