The 150th anniversary of the Civil War in Tennessee makes this year’s Undergraduate Social Science Symposium at MTSU a timely one, as student, faculty and visiting scholars address the topic of “Collective Memories of War” today and Wednesday, Oct. 30 and 31.

The symposium gets under way today with a panel discussion and student research-paper presentations in the James Union Building on the MTSU campus.

Dr. Derek Frisby, an associate professor of history at MTSU, will provide today’s special address at 4:30 p.m. with a lecture on “The Blue Raiders and the Gray Wizard: Struggles with War, Memory and Identity.”

Frisby, whose specialty is military history, will speak in the JUB’s Tennessee Room.

On Wednesday, Oct. 31, the symposium will showcase a lecture by Dr. Heidi Beirich, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project and an expert on hate groups and extremism in America. Her address, “The State of Hate in the United States,” is set for 11:30 a.m., also in the Tennessee Room inside the James Union Building.

Dr. Heidi Beirich

Student research presentations also will continue throughout the day Wednesday. All symposium events are free and open to the public.

Dr. Tony Pollard, an internationally recognized archaeologist and director of the Centre for Battlefield Archaeology at Scotland’s Glasgow University, was scheduled to speak today, but weather problems forced him to cancel his visit, symposium organizers said.

The MTSU Undergraduate Social Science Symposium is sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the College of Liberal Arts, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, the MTSU Public History Program, the University Honors College, the Distinguished Lecture Committee, the Office of Research and MTSU’s Forensic Institute for Research and Education.

Conducted at MTSU since 1993, the event is modeled after a typical professional conference and was designed to prompt students’ scientific study of human interaction and encourage their professional growth as well as provide opportunities for scholars to exchange ideas.

For more details, visit the symposium’s home page at www.mtsu.edu/soc/socsymp.