As part of a 2-day symposium, Zebulon B. Vance Reconsidered, Yale University Professor of History David Blight, will discuss Vance's life and legacy. This event is free and open to everyone at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 14 in Lipinsky Auditorium.

Vance, who served as a Confederate officer and then North Carolina governor during the Civil War, was imprisoned after the war. Later pardoned, he practiced as an attorney, and then became governor again and then U.S. Senator.

Commemorated with statues (like the one in Raleigh photographed above), monuments and historical sites, including the Vance Monument in downtown Asheville, and the Vance Birthplace near Weaverville, N.C., Vance's legacy is now being reexamined and debated.

David Blight, an expert on history and memory, and the author of many books about the Civil War and Reconstruction eras, is director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale.

The symposium will continue on Friday, Sept. 15, with a morning panel featuring eminent retired history professor Gordon McKinney; Steve Nash, assistant professor at East Tennessee State University; Joe Mobley, lecturer at NC State; and Darin Waters, assistant professor at UNC Asheville.

Friday afternoon at 2 p.m., New York Times best-selling novelist Sharyn McCrumb, who has featured Vance frequently enough in her novels that she jokes, "I think I dated him in high school," will offer a talk about Vance.

The two Friday events - the 10 a.m. historian panel and the 2 p.m. talk by Sharyn McCrumb, will both take place in UNC Asheville's Sherrill Center, Mountain View Room 417.

Information for Patrons

All sessions in the symposium are free. However, pre-registration is required for each session. You must present your tickets (printed or on smartphone) to be admitted to the each session. All seating is general admission. Backpacks are not allowed and bags will be checked at the door.

Thank you for your patronage! For more information about events at UNC Asheville, visit events.unca.edu.



