Spartanburg Methodist College Convocation Address to focus on Educating the Professor

SPARTANBURG, SC – Spartanburg Methodist College will mark the official start of the 2015-2016 academic year with its annual convocation ceremony to be held at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, September 2. Convocation, the celebration to welcome new students and prepare the campus to move into a successful academic year, will feature Dr. Katherine Davis Cann as the program’s keynote speaker.

Cann, SMC’s Professor of History and Chair of the Social Science Division, is a highly respected professor, researcher, author and historian. Her meticulous work in researching and articulating the history of both Spartanburg Methodist College and South Carolina has preserved history in ways that will forever enable others to understand their value and appreciate their ongoing significance.

A graduate of Lander University, Cann holds advanced degrees from the University of North Carolina (MA in History) and the University of South Carolina (PhD in History). Cann has called Spartanburg Methodist College home since 1981 and during that same time, has written several articles and books, Common Ties, A History of Textile Industrial Institute, Spartanburg Junior College and Spartanburg Methodist College (Hub City Press) and Turning Point, The American Revolution in the Spartan District (Hub City Press) about Spartanburg Methodist as well as the Upstate.

Cann’s convocation address will focus on her 34 years of teaching, and the wisdom her students have imparted her. “Last spring Dr. Cann announced she would be retiring at the end of the Fall 2015 semester. The ripple effect of this revelation inspired us to ask Dr. Cann to speak at this year’s convocation. Without question, Dr. Cann’s amusing take on her decades spent in the classroom will be priceless,” shared Dr. Ann Bowles, Vice President of Academic Affairs for SMC.

SMC is South Carolina’s only private, residential college exclusively for freshmen and sophomore students and one of only four colleges in South Carolina affiliated with the United Methodist Church. SMC’s mission is to transform lives in a values-oriented, student-centered atmosphere in the Christian tradition that encourages academic excellence, intellectual exploration, social awareness, and character development within the liberal arts tradition. Spartanburg Methodist College, founded in 1911, is proud of its heritage of providing “the opportunity TO BE your best and the inspiration TO DO great things.”