Reckoning With History: Why Our Past is Political
Great thanks to our sponsors The Honorable Will Hartnett and Tammy Cotton Hartnett for making this event possible.
It is our pleasure to welcome other alumni clubs and organizations to this community event.
Professor Timothy Patrick McCarthy will be our honored speaker for this annual event. His presentation promises to be engaging and informative.
American history has always been in the crosshairs of the so-called “culture wars.” From the many myths of the nation’s “founding” to the contested “causes” of the Civil War to contemporary conflicts over critical race theory, The 1619 Project, and teaching LGBTQ history, the past is political precisely because it is always present. In this wide-ranging and provocative lecture, Professor McCarthy will make a forceful case for why—and how—the politics of history is both a vital tradition and a moral obligation in the United States.
Timothy Patrick McCarthy is an award-winning scholar, teacher, and activist. At the Harvard Graduate School of Education, he is Core Faculty in both the Foundations Curriculum and the Education Leadership, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship Program. At the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was the first openly gay/queer faculty member and still teaches the school’s only course on LGBTQ matters, he is Faculty Affiliate at the Center for Public Leadership and Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.
Twice named one of Harvard Crimson’s “Professors of the Year,” Dr. McCarthy has received many awards for his commitment to students, including the 2015 HKS Dean’s Award for Exceptional Leadership on Diversity and Inclusion and the 2019 Manuel C. Carballo Award, the Kennedy School’s highest teaching honor. Dr. McCarthy was also one of ten faculty members from across the university whose teaching was first showcased in HGSE’s Instructional Moves Project. In May 2020, amidst the COVID pandemic, Kennedy School graduates selected him to deliver the faculty address, Precedented Bravery, at their virtual Class Day ceremony.
Dr. McCarthy is the Stanley Paterson Professor of American History and Academic Director emeritus in the Boston Clemente Course, a free college humanities course for lower income adults in Dorchester and co-recipient of the 2015 National Humanities Medal from President Obama. He has taught in Clemente since its founding in 2001.
The adopted only son and grandson of public school teachers and factory workers, Dr. McCarthy graduated with honors in History and Literature from Harvard College and earned his M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in History from Columbia University. A noted historian of politics and social movements, he is author or editor of six books, including Reckoning with History: Unfinished Stories of American Freedom (Columbia UP, 2021) and Stonewall’s Children: Living Queer History in an Age of Liberation, Loss, and Love, forthcoming from the New Press. He is a frequent media commentator whose work has been featured in Salon, Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, Pangyrus, Gay and Lesbian Review, The Nation, NPR, Al Jazeera, and BBC, as well as several documentary films, including A Reckoning in Boston and Building a Bridge, which premiered at the Boston Independent Film Festival and Tribeca Film Festival this summer. In June 2019, Dr. McCarthy was guest editor for The Nation’s historic Reclaiming Stonewall 50 forum.
DETAILS:
Date: May 9, 2022
Time: 6:00 pm
Location: Arts District Mansion, 2100 Ross Avenue, Dallas, TX 75201
Cost for Tickets:
- HCD Patron, Regular Members/Parents & Spouses: $25.00
- HCD Recent Grad/Student Members: $15.00
- Guest/Non-Member: $25.00
Parking: The entrance to the Parking Garage at the Arts District Mansion is located off Olive Street
Questions: Call or email: 469-431-1436 or velda@sacleadership.com.