David Scobey, executive dean of The New School for Public Engagement at The New School in New York, will speak at Duke University on Thursday, Sept. 26.
The Annual Civic Engagement Distinguished Lecture Series, titled "The Invitation: An Essay of Public Scholarship," takes place at 4 p.m. ET in Room 04 of the Sanford School of Public Policy on Duke's West Campus. The event is free and open to the public; a public reception will follow.
Duke President Richard H. Brodhead will provide a brief introduction.
Scobey's scholarship focuses on politics, culture and urbanism in 19th-century America. He is considered a national leader on integrating civic and community engagement into history, the humanities and arts, and liberal education.
Scobey began working at The New School in 2010. Prior to that, he was a professor of community partnerships and the inaugural director of the Harward Center For Community Partnerships at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.
Before his time in Maine, Scobey was associate professor of architecture in the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning and director of the Arts of Citizenship Program at the University of Michigan.
Scobey holds a doctorate degree from Yale University’s Program in American Studies. He is the author of "Empire City: The Making and Meaning of the New York City Landscape" (Temple University Press, 2002) and articles on 19th-century U.S. cultural and urban history.
His awards include a Rhodes Scholarship and a Senior Research Fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.
During his three-day visit at Duke, Scobey will also facilitate small working groups of undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff from departments and units across campus.
Scobey's lecture is sponsored by the Duke Office of Civic Engagement with support from the Forum for Scholars & Publics, the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences, Duke Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative, Franklin Humanities Center and Office of Durham and Regional Affairs.