November 2, 2017
Morgan to present keynote address at state museum conference
Submitted by Bonnie Lynn-Sherow
MJ Morgan, historian, author and research director in the Chapman Center for Rural Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, will give a keynote address to the membership of the Kansas Museum Association on Friday, Nov. 3, in Manhattan. The annual conference will be at the Four Points Sheraton.
The 2017 conference theme, "Telling our Stories: Why your Museum Matters," is highly relevant to the mission of the Chapman Center. For over a decade, Morgan has been directing the research of K-State undergraduate students in local and regional history. That research has required that students connect with staff members and volunteers at dozens of historical societies and museums, both large and small. The work of her students has been recognized in numerous venues with prizes, scholarships and publications across the state.
The center's online publication platform, a National Endowment for the Humanities-sponsored project in 2010, was recently selected by the National Humanities Alliance as a high-impact National Endowment for the Humanities project and featured in the alliance's 2017-18 print and online publications.
Morgan's keynote address will take place at the annual awards luncheon. The title of her talk is "Tales from the Classroom Frontier: How Undergrads use Museums." Using a broad selection of selected images and examples, Morgan's talk will highlight the importance of museums in engaging young scholars in the work of telling our stories.
Morgan is the author/editor of "Broughton Kansas: Portrait of a Lost Town 1869-1966," published in 2010, and "Border Sanctuary: the Conservation Legacy of the Santa Anna Land Grant," published in 2015.