National Endowment for the Humanities chairman Bruce Cole gives free public lecture at UAA tonight

Thursday, August 21, 7 p.m.
Fine Arts Building, Room 150

The Polaris Lecture Series is pleased to welcome Bruce Cole, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, for a free public lecture at UAA on Thursday, August 21 at 7 p.m. in the Fine Arts Building recital hall, room 150.

Chairman Cole's lecture is entitled, "The Necessity of an Informed Patriotism," and will address the need for Americans to have a firm understanding of our nation's history and principles in order to be effective citizens; the disturbing lack of this knowledge among many Americans today (particularly young people); and what the National Endowment for the Humanities has been doing over the past six years through its "We the People" program to address this challenge.

The Polaris Lecture Series, founded in the 1980s to commemorate the bicentenary of the American Constitution, now features lectures on a wide range of topics in the humanities. Organized by the UAA Democracy Forum, which is associated with the Forty-Ninth State Fellows, the series offers 12 lectures a year, six sponsored by a Teaching American History grant, one on Constitution Day (September 17), one on Alaska Day (October 18), one on Shakespeare, and one honoring a UAA faculty member.