David Silkenat, assistant professor in the School of Education, presented a paper, titled "Coming of Age at Female Academies in Confederate North Carolina," at the History of Education Society Annual Meeting in Philadelphia at the beginning of November. The paper explores the educational and social experiences of approximately 5,000 students at female academies in North Carolina during the Civil War.

He also presented a paper, titled "Lincoln in Black Memory: An Interpretation of Former Slaves’ Comments on Abraham Lincoln in WPA Narratives" at a conference titled "Between History and Myth: Politics and Political Use of Abraham Lincoln" at Università degli Studi di Milano in Milan, Italy. The paper examines what former slaves, 70 years after the Civil War, thought about Abraham Lincoln and the legacy of emancipation.