The Lincoln University Center for Public History

The Lincoln University Center for Public History is a research and teaching center devoted to the analysis, promotion, and transformation of American Public History.

History

In 2018, Lincoln University, sensing a growing need, began to explore concrete avenues through which to serve—and to shape—national conversations regarding the ways in which African American history is researched in our communities and represented in our public memory. In response to this exploration, Lincoln University—in partnership with Voices Underground—moved to create the Center for Public History.

In 2019 The Center for Public History hosted two gatherings with regional community-based historians to explore both the need and the possibilities for such an initiative. Based on this collaborative feedback, we decided to host a national scale conference on the scholarly research and public representation of the history of the Underground Railroad.

This gathering, initially planned for 2020, took place in the fall of 2021. With this event, the Center for Public History was officially born. In 2022, the Center received generous funding from the Andrew W Mellon foundation to support the development of its mission, internship program, and preliminary programming.

In 2023, Lincoln University hired Dr. Larycia Hawkins to serve as its first Director. In 2025, the Center will move into its new renovated home on Lincoln University’s historic campus.

Vision

Our vision is the creation of a culture of humble, truthful, and generative public memory in our communities.

Mission

We pursue this vision through a threefold mission:

  • To create a home for ongoing research regarding African American history in Pennsylvania and beyond

  • To create a context through which African American students and scholars can meaningfully and vocationally participate in the critical work of public history.

  • To nurture and shape national scale conversations about how African American history is represented publicly

Offerings

This mission is expressed in a host of ways, including but not limited to:

Original Research and Publication

Undergraduate courses and experiences

Subject Matter Conferences

Residential Scholarships

Public Programming

Our Staff

  • Larycia A. Hawkins, PhD., is a scholar, an award-winning political science professor, an international activist, and a sought-after speaker and commentator on issues related to the intersections of race, politics, religion, and solidarity. She earned her BA in History and Sociology at Rice University and her MPA and PhD at the University of Oklahoma. Currently, she is the Director of the Center for Public History at Lincoln University where she is also a Professor of Political Science.

    Prior to her current post, she was on the General Faculty in the Departments of Politics and Religious Studies at the University of Virginia; where she was a Faculty Collaborator in the Religion, Race, and Democracy Lab; was a Fellow of the Sound Justice Lab; was a co-convener of the Religion and Its Publics Project of the Henry Luce Foundation; was Affiliated Faculty with the Project on Lived Theology; and was a Faculty Fellow on the Race, Faith, and Culture Project at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture.

  • Gregory Thompson is a Scholar, Writer, Artist, and creative leader who works at the intersection of moral imagination and social change.

    Focusing on matters of race, religion, memory, and hospitality, he currently serves as Co-Founder and Creative Director of Voices Underground, a team of scholars, artists, and activists devoted to racial healing through storytelling. He is author of The Welcome Table, a column on Hospitality and Culture at Comment Magazine, of Blood From the Ground: Racial Healing and Public Memory (forthcoming), co-author of the award-winning Reparations: A Christian Call to Repentance and Repair, and co-editor (with Mark R. Gornik) of a book of essays by the philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff called Hearing the Call: Liturgy, Justice, Church, World.

    He holds an MA and a PhD from the University of Virginia, where he wrote his dissertation on Martin Luther King Jr.