DANBURY, CONN. — After kicking off the bicentennial celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday with a political debate, the WCSU Lincoln planning committee is looking to a year-long schedule of events that will focus on the 16th U.S. President and the legacy he left behind.

On Wednesday, April 29, WestConn will host a dramatic reading of “Lincoln, The Great Emancipator” by playwright and amateur historian Thomas D. Klingenstein at noon in Alumni Hall on the Midtown campus, 181 White St. in Danbury. The play and discussion to follow will focus on Lincoln and ways in which drama can promote historical understanding. And on Monday, May 4, Boston University Professor of History Dr. Nina Silber will discuss “Why Gender Matters for Understanding the Civil War” at 3 p.m., also in Alumni Hall.

In addition to discussions and events open to the public, several upcoming undergraduate courses will focus on Lincoln, including COM 274, a television workshop class. This fall 2009 course will create a short digital film documenting areas of Lincoln’s legacy. Students in survey courses (History 148 and 149) and historiography (History 350) and in Danbury High School’s Advanced Placement courses will study Lincoln’s life and then examine historical memory and popular culture. Materials for this course will be prepared in the summer for presentation in the fall.

Earlier this year, Gov. M. Jodi Rell had asked each Connecticut State University system campus, as well as other state agencies, to recognize the occasion with events that will be of value today.

Past events included a “Political Fight Night,” where students, faculty and the public debated whether “If Lincoln were alive today, would he be a Democrat or a Republican?” Other events were “Abraham Lincoln and the U.S. Constitution,” a discussion at Danbury High School led by WCSU Associate Professor of History and Non-Western Cultures Dr. Kevin Gutzman and an on-campus discussion, “Those Lincoln-Obama Comparisons: A Historian Responds,” led by Professor of History and Non-Western Cultures Dr. Burton Peretti.

The WCSU Lincoln planning committee is still gathering suggestions for upcoming events. Contact Peretti at perettib@wcsu.edu.

Western Connecticut State University offers outstanding faculty in a range of quality academic programs. Our diverse university community provides students an enriching and supportive environment that takes advantage of the unique cultural offerings of Western Connecticut and New York. Our vision: To be an affordable public university with the characteristics of New England’s best small private universities.