The Lincoln Symposium Speakers

Stephen Berry is associate professor of history at the University of Georgia, where he teaches courses on the Civil War as a lived experience. The recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Gilder Lehrman Institute, Berry is the author or editor of four books, including his latest: House of Abraham: Lincoln & the Todds, A Family Divided By War (Houghton Mifflin, 2007).

Jason Emerson is an independent historian and freelance writer. He previously worked as a professional journalist and National Park Service Historical Interpreter at Lincoln Home National Historic Site and at the Gettysburg National Military Park.

Dr. William C. Harris is the author of numerous noteworthy Lincoln and Civil War publications including Lincoln’s Last Months and Lincoln’s Rise to the Presidency. In addition to other awards, Dr. Harris is recipient of the Lincoln Prize for Civil War History, the Henry Adams Prize, and The Lincoln Diploma of Honor presented by Lincoln Memorial University.

Dr. Victoria Ott is Professor of History at Birmingham-Southern College. Dr. Ott is author of Confederate Daughters: Coming of Age during the Civil War. Her areas of academic interest include Women’s history, the American South, civil War and Reconstruction, and 19th Century American history.

The Honorable Tommy Turner, a native Kentuckian, is a member of the national Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission (ALBC) and serves as Co-Chair of the Kentucky Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission (KYALBC). He also serves as Chair of the Lincoln Trail Area Development District. Involved in the development of the Lincoln Museum in Hodgenville, KY, Turner also spearheaded the effort to add the Abraham Lincoln Boyhood Home (the Knob Creek Farm) to the National Park Service holdings in the Hodgenville, Kentucky area.

The Honorable Frank Williams was appointed and confirmed Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court in 2001. An inveterate collector of Lincolniana, Judge Williams is also one of the nation’s leading scholars on the life and times of Abraham Lincoln. Appointed by Congress to serve as a member of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission (ALBC), Judge Williams continues to write, and speak of Lincoln’s life.