Newman University will present Gretchen Eick Ph.D., professor of history at Friends University, as guest speaker for a Constitution Day Lecture. The lecture will take place at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012 in the Dugan-Gorges Conference Center on the Newman campus, 3100 McCormick in Wichita. This event is free and open to the public.
The title of Eick’s lecture is “The U.S. Constitution: Whose Rights Does it Protect in the 21st Century?”
Eick’s lecture will address rights of privacy on the issues of social media, cell phones, and the Internet. Eick will also be covering marriage, change in the community, and the civil rights history of Wichita that comes from her award winning book, Dissent in Wichita, The Civil Rights Movement in the Midwest, 1954-72. Eick’s book was the winner of the Bryon Caldwell Smith Book Prize, 2003, the William Rockhill Nelson Award for non-fiction, and the Richard L. Wentworth Prize in American History, 2002.
“Gretchen Eick’s topic of the Constitution and rights in the 21st century is intriguing,” said Newman University Chair, Division of Humanities, and Associate Professor of History Cheryl Golden, Ph.D. “As we continue to push forward into the 21st century, issues of individual privacy and technology must surely be key. As we near an election, all of us should be thinking about our rights and responsibilities as citizens. This Constitution Day talk should inspire a discussion and questions about those rights and responsibilities.”
Eick received a degree in history and American studies from Northern University. She received her doctorate in American studies from the University of Kansas in 1997. Eick was a board member of the Global Leaning Center from 2005 to 2010, and executive director of the National IMPACT from 1987 to 1991.
