With the generous support from the FMTL, the library hosted Dr. Brett Gary, Associate Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at NYU, as speaker for Constitution Day. Every year federally-funded schools provide programming to honor Constitution and Citizenship Day and this year the library took the opportunity on September 13th to collaborate with the organizers of WW1CC to host both a talk as well as to celebrate the opening of the WW1CC festivities. The WWI trench recreated on Michigan Tech’s campus invites visitors to explore and immerse themselves in the history.
Sue Collins, Associate Professor of Communication, Culture, and Media here at Michigan Tech and lead organizer for WW1CC, opened the evening with a few brief words welcoming everyone to the opening of WW1CC and to the library’s Constitution Day event. Dr. Gary then delivered a captivating talk to a full East Reading Room. His talk, entitled, “World War 1 Speech Catastrophes and the Postwar Struggle for Free Political and Sexual Speech” explored the history of the wartime crackdown on political dissent and sexual impurity, and the development of the parallel civil liberties traditions that emerged in the war’s aftermath.
by Katie Edson, Collections Librarian and FMTL