Symposium speakers include a distinguished group of scholars and authors:

Dr. Allen Guelzo is the Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era, and Director of Civil War Era Studies at Gettysburg College. He is the author of Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President, which won the Lincoln Prize for 2000, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America, which won the Lincoln Prize for 2005, and Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates That Defined America, which won the Abraham Lincoln Institute Prize for 2008. His most recent work is Abraham Lincoln As A Man of Ideas (a collection of essays published in 2009 by Southern Illinois University Press) and Lincoln, a volume in Oxford University Press's "Very Short Introductions" series (also 2009). His articles and essays have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, and he has been featured on NPR, the Discovery Channel, and the National Geographic Channel. He was nominated by President Bush to the National Council on the Humanities, and was awarded the Medal of Honor of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. He is the founding dean of the Templeton Honors College at Eastern University.

Dr. Lucas Morel is a member of the scholarly advisory committee of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, president of the Abraham Lincoln Institute, and a trustee of the Supreme Court Historical Society. In the 2008-09 academic year, he was the Visiting Research Fellow at the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. Dr. Morel also teaches in the Master's Program in American History and Government at Ashland University in Ohio. Dr. Morel is the author of Lincoln's Sacred Effort: Defining Religion's Role in American Self-Government.

Dr. Joseph Fornieri is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology where he teaches American politics, political philosophy and constitutional rights and liberties. He is the author of Abraham Lincoln's Political Faith, an acclaimed scholarly work that explores Lincoln's religion and politics. He is the author-editor of The Language of Liberty: The Political Speeches and Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln's American Dream: Clashing Political Perspectives with Kenneth L. Deutsch, and Lincoln's America with Sara V. Gabbard. Dr. Fornieri serves as an Advisory Member of the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, the Lincoln Forum and the Lehrman American Studies Institute.  He was a Fulbright Lecturer for 2008-2009 in Prague, Czech Republic. 

Matthew Pinsker is the Brian Pohanka Chair for Civil War History at Dickinson College. He also directs the college's House Divided Project (http://housedivided.dickinson.edu)  an innovative web-based effort to provide greater digital resources on the Civil War era to K-12 classroom teachers. Pinsker is the author of Lincoln's Sanctuary: Abraham Lincoln and the Soldiers' Home. He conducts teacher training workshops and recently served as a Visiting Fellow at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, PA.

Fred Barnes is executive editor of The Weekly Standard. From 1985 to 1995, he served as senior editor and White House correspondent for the New Republic. He is co-host of the Beltway Boys on the Fox News Channel and appears regularly on Fox's Special Report with Brit Hume. He has also appeared on Nightline, Meet the Press, Face the Nation, and the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Mr. Barnes graduated from the University of Virginia and was a Neiman Fellow at Harvard University.

Dr. Jonathan White is a visiting assistant professor of American Studies at Christopher Newport University in Virginia. He earned Ph.D. in U.S. History from the University of Maryland, College Park. His dissertation, "'To Aid Their Rebel Friends: Politics and Treason in the Civil War North," was awarded his department's E.B. and Jean Smith Prize in Political History and is under contract with LSU Press. He has published a number of articles and in 2007 he published A Philadelphia Perspective: The Civil War Diary of Sidney George Fisher with Fordham University Press.
 
The Symposium Events will feature:

• A free showing of From Budapest to Hungary at the Anthony Wayne Cinema
• The Gilder Lehrman Institute Traveling Exhibition on Freedom: A History of US
• Author book signings
• Book discussions with authors

A full Schedule of Events and locations can be found at http://www.templetonhonorscollege.com/lincoln.html

The symposium title, Last Best Hope of Earth, fittingly calls to memory the significance Lincoln saw in the Civil War. Lincoln believed the Union was worth saving --even at extraordinary cost--because America was a nation that had been founded on the proposition that "all men are created equal."  The stakes were high, as Lincoln would explain in his annual message to Congress on December 1, 1862: "Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves...We hold the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free--honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth."

These sentiments continue to merit deep consideration and the honor of our memory.

Unless otherwise indicated, all events taking place throughout the weekend are free of charge, but people are asked to register at http://www.templetonhonorscollege.com/lincoln.html

For directions and more information about Eastern University, visit www.eastern.edu

Eastern University is a Christian university of the arts and sciences which integrates Faith, Reason and Justice for students in its undergraduate, graduate, Seminary, urban, professional and international programs.