ASU Convocation Center

Dr. Clyde A. Milner, director, Heritage Studies Ph.D. Program and professor of history,
Welcome & Introductions

In July 2002, Milner was appointed as director of the Heritage Studies Ph.D. Program at ASU, where he serves as professor of history. Milner was chosen after a rigorous national search. He came to ASU from Utah State University, where he was also a professor of history and executive editor of “Western Historical Quarterly”. From 1997 to 2000, he directed the Mountain West Center for Regional Studies and was executive director of the American Studies Program. He is author or editor of seven books, including “A New Significance: Re-envisioning the History of the American West” (1996). He has written many articles, and is helping to plan a six million word online Encyclopedia of American History to be published by the Organization of American Historians and Oxford University Press.

Panelists:

Dr. C. Calvin Smith, Presidential Distinguished Professor, ASU Distinguished Alumni,
“Uncovering More History”

A 32-year veteran of ASU, Smith was named the first Presidential Distinguished Professor of Heritage Studies in January 2003. In 1970, Smith became the first African American tenured faculty member. In October 2004, he was recognized as one of ASU’s Distinguished Alumni. His remarkable, unquestionable knowledge of the Delta region proves to be an invaluable asset to the students in the Heritage Studies program.

Dr. George Grant, dean, Dean B. Ellis Library,
“Publishing More History”

Grant serves ASU as the current dean of the library. Prior to ASU, he served as dean of library services at Jackson State University in Mississippi and as the director of libraries at North Carolina Central University in Durham. Grant has served as president of FOUR-G Publishers, Inc., in Orlando, Fla., and has published more than 60 books on the black experience, biography, poetry, and religion since 1989. He earned his Ph.D. in library administration at the University of Pittsburgh.

Minnijean Brown Trickey, Visiting Writer, Mary Gay Shipley Writing Fellowship,
“Remembering the Significance of the Civil Rights Movement”

In 1957, Brown was one of the nine African American students to attend an all-white high school in Little Rock. That group of brave teenagers later became known as “The Little Rock Nine.” In 1999, Brown and her fellow classmates received the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal. From 1999-2001, she served as the deputy assistant secretary for Workforce Diversity, Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C. Today, she lives in Little Rock and spends much of her time traveling to share her story of the civil rights era in Arkansas. She is the first recipient of the Mary Gay Shipley Writing Fellowship in Heritage Studies at ASU and is currently working on a book about her life.