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George Mason University's Department of African and African American Studies welcomes scholars, students, and the public to its Lost and Found Stories Lecture.
"Telling Secrets, Spying History: What Researching Mary Bowser Can Tell Us About America's Past Thursday,"
November 8, 3:00 pm, George Mason
University, Johnson Center, Third Floor, Room D
Join Dr. Lois Leveen for a discussion of the research behind *The Secrets of Mary Bowser* (HarperCollins), her novel based on the true story of a former Richmond, Virginia slave who became a Union spy in the Confederate White House. The book provides readers insight into the lives of free and enslaved blacks in urban, industrialized Richmonds, and into how blacks and whites worked together in the pro-Union
underground that operated in Richmond during the war. The talk will also explore what it means to teach--and learn--history through fiction.
Dr. Leveen holds degrees in history and literature from Harvard University, the University of Southern California, and UCLA. A former faculty member at UCLA and Reed College in Portland, Oregon, she gives talks nationally and internationally on American history, literature, and culture, with special emphasis on race. She is a regular contributor to "Disunion," the New York Times' ongoing coverage of the sesquicentennial of the Civil War. Her poetry, short humor pieces, and scholarly essays have appeared in many publications and on National Public Radio.
Lost and Found Stories is an annual event encouraging the study of northern Virginia's black history. Admission is free, and there will be a reception following the lecture.
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