The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the American Studies Program and the History Department of Columbia University announce a symposium to commemorate the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth in 1809 and to mark the publication of Our Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World, edited by Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History, Columbia University.

To launch the 2009 bicentennial, “Lincoln in His Time and Ours” will explore Lincoln’s legacy and his place in American history through three sessions chaired by Christopher Leslie Brown (Columbia), David W. Blight (Yale), and Harold Holzer (U.S. Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission). Topics will range from “Lincoln, Emancipation, and the Rights of Black Americans” to “Lincoln’s Religion,” and speakers will include distinguished scholars Eric Foner (Columbia), James M. McPherson (Princeton), Andrew Delbanco (Columbia), Richard J. Carwardine (Oxford), and Sean Wilentz (Princeton).

The symposium will take placein the Rotunda of Low Memorial Library, at 116th and Broadway. There is no charge for the symposium, but seats are limited. To reserve a place, please e-mail karavas@gilderlehrman.org or call 646-366-9666.