New Ways to Read Old News

Exploring the Southern past through Southern papers

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During the Tuesday afternoon session at SNPA's News Industry Summit, Dr. Edward Ayers, president of the University of Richmond, will take SNPA members on a road trip through Southern history, with lessons that every executive who lives or operates in the South should understand.  This masterful storyteller and historian will show how newspapers connect the past, present and future of the South.

"As a historian of the American South, I've found the newspapers of the region my best guide to what people were thinking, saying and doing through the South's tumultuous history," Ayers said. "The work of historians, like the work of newspapers today, is being transformed by the digital revolution, unlocking the millions of words about the past that have been filed away on microfilm.  New ways of finding broad patterns and telling details in the papers of the past offer exciting opportunities for historians and for newspapers that want to deepen their connection to their communities today."

Dr. Ayers is the author of 11 books on American history. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the National Medal for the Humanities, awarded by President Obama at the White House in the summer of 2013.  He has also won the Bancroft Prize for distinguished writing in American History and the Beveridge Prize for the best book in English on the history of the Americas since 1492 as well being named a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

Dr. Ayers' digital archive project, "The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War," has been used in thousands of classrooms around the world, and he works closely with the Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond on a digital atlas of American history, funded by a large grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Dr. Ayers is also a co-host of BackStory, a nationally syndicated radio show that ties history to the present day.

Dr. Ayers is an accomplished teacher. In 2003 he was awarded the National Professor of the Year from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and he annually teaches an undergraduate seminar for first-year students.

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