UMW History Professor Featured on With Good Reason

University of Mary Washington Professor of History Jeffrey McClurken will be featured on the “With Good Reason” public radio program, December 13-19.

The show, “Give War and Peace a Chance,” will consider how history is captured in anticipation of the 150^th anniversary of the first publication of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.” McClurken will discuss how, despite the way that historical movies are often inaccurate, history can be learned from the way the stories are told. The program also will feature commentary from a faculty member at the University of Virginia.

“With Good Reason” is a program of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. The show airs weekly in Fredericksburg on Sundays from 1-2 p.m. on Radio IQ 88.3 Digital. To listen from outside of the Fredericksburg area, a complete list of air times and links to corresponding radio stations can be found at http://withgoodreasonradio.org/when-to-listen.  Audio files of the full program and its companion news feature are available online at http://withgoodreasonradio.org/2014/12/give-war-and-peace-a-chance/.

McClurken, who joined the UMW faculty in 2001, has been instrumental to the university’s digital history efforts and has been on the forefront of incorporating technology in the classroom. Currently the special assistant to the provost for teaching, technology and innovation, McClurken previously served as chairperson of the history and American studies department.

McClurken is recipient of a prestigious 2014 Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia, the commonwealth’s highest honor for faculty at Virginia’s public and private colleges and universities. He has presented numerous lectures and presentations across the country on teaching with social media, digital history and 19th-century American social and cultural history. His 2009 book “Take Care of the Living: Reconstructing Confederate Veteran Families in Virginia” examines the long-term consequences of the Civil War for veterans and their families in Southside Virginia.

Named to the Princeton Review’s inaugural list of “300 Best Professors,” McClurken received the Mary Washington Young Alumnus Award in 2003 and the J. Christopher Bill Outstanding Faculty Service Award in 2012.

A 1994 graduate of Mary Washington, McClurken received a master’s degree and doctorate from Johns Hopkins University.