The Ashbrook Center is celebrating its fortieth anniversary. The program is hosting the Abraham Lincoln and the American Experiment in Self-Government conference on Friday, Nov. 17, and Saturday, Nov. 18.  

 The conference is in celebration of two momentous events: the 160th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address and the 40th anniversary of the Ashbrook Center. 

On Friday, Nov. 17, there will be an opening keynote address from Diana Schaub, a professor at Loyola University. She will present “The Second Inaugural: Lincoln’s Rhetoric of Reconciliation”. The keynote address will be from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Ronk Lecture Hall in the Dwight Schar College of Education Building.  

Saturday will include three different panels of distinguished Lincoln scholars from all over the country. There will be three scholars on each panel and a Q&A will follow. From 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., a panel of Dr. Dan Monroe (Millikin University), Dr. Lucas Morel (Washington and Lee University), and Dr. Cara Rogers Stevens (Ashland University) will be discussing “The Ideas and Ideals that Made Lincoln”.  

Panel 2 will be about “Confronting History and Progress” with insights from Dr. Jason Jividen (St. Vincent College), Dr. Andrew Lang (Mississippi State University), and Dr. John Channing Briggs (University of California, Riverside) from 10:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. The last panel will be from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. and Dr. Chris Burkett (Ashland University), Dr. Adam Carrington (Hillsdale College), and Dr. Jason Stevens (Ashland University) will be discussing “Lincoln’s Wartime Strategy: The Declaration, Constitution, and Gettysburg Address.   

A Closing Keynote Address will take place from 2:45 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. from University of Notre Dame professor, Michael Zuckertt. He will address the reading of the Gettysburg Address.   

Dr. Jason Stevens, assistant professor of political science and co-director of Ashbrook Scholar Program said, “To understand Lincoln, you need to understand his time and place in history.” He explained there will be more than just talk about Lincoln himself. There will be insight into a number of political and intellectual figures.  

Following the conference on both Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 p.m., a production of Macbeth will be performed in the Studio Theatre in Ashland’s Center for the Arts building. Lincoln’s favorite play was Macbeth as he loved Shakespeare.  

The conference will be open to the public and completely free. It will help the public, students, and staff learn more about such a monumental figure in the U.S.’s history.