ADA, Okla. – East Central University faculty representing a wide range of disciplines will showcase the diversity of the campus’s General Education program with an all-day event titled “The 1920s: A Centenary Retrospective” scheduled from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sept. 17 in the Estep Multimedia Center, located inside the Bill S. Cole University Center.

“The 1920s: A Centenary Retrospective,” a follow-up to last fall’s successful “Vietnam (is not): 50” event, features an even wider array of departments and disciplines, including art, English, film studies, history, mathematics, media, philosophy, physics, political science and Russian studies.

Each session will begin with musical performances by ECU faculty, students and alumni. Faculty will then deliver 20-minute talks on landmark events and developments of the decade.

This event is free and open to the public.

Community members are encouraged to drop by throughout the day and hear many of our students’ favorite professors share their perspectives on the 1920s.

8-9:15 a.m.

  • “Business as Usual: Presidential Personalities and Policy in the 1920s,” presented by Dr. Brad Clampitt, professor in the Department of History.
  • “Langston Hughes: The Other America,” presented by Dr. Ken Hada, professor in the Department of English and Languages.
  • “Women in the Sciences in the 1920s,” presented by Dr. Karen Williams, professor in the Department of Physical Sciences.

9:30-10:45 a.m.

  • “The Sounds of the Silents: The 1920s on Film,” presented by Dr. Houston Mount, professor in the Department of History.
  • “Creating the Fitzgeralds: Scott, Zelda, and the Making of Jazz Age Celebrity,” presented by Dr. Sarah Peters, assistant vice president for Academic Affairs and professor in the Department of English and Languages.
  • “Russia in the 1920s,” presented by Dr. Mara Sukholutskaya, professor of Russian in the Department of English and Languages and director of Global Education.

11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

  • “Heidegger and Time,” presented by Dr. Jennifer McMahon, professor and chair of the Department of English.
  • “Landmark Supreme Court Cases of the 1920s,” presented by Dr. Christine Pappas, professor and chair of the Department of Politics, Law and Society.
  • “Art Deco in the 1920s,” presented by Prof. Melina Rodrigo, assistant professor in the Department of Art, Design, Media & Communication.

12:30 p.m.-1:45 p.m.

  • “Ada in the 1920s,” presented by Sarah Engel, chair and assistant professor in the Department of Art, Design, Media & Communication and Susan Ingram, instructor in the Department of Art, Design, Media & Communication.
  • “Shifting Foundations: The Changing World of Mathematics in the 1920s,” presented by Dr. Andrew Wells, chair and professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.
  • “The Coming of the Stock Market Crash,” presented by Dr. Chris Bean, professor and chair of the Department of History.

Following the afternoon sessions, a 3:30 p.m. screening of the 2016 National Theatre production of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s “The Threepenny Opera” (1928) will be offered to ECU students and faculty.

At 6:30 p.m., Dr. Nathaniel Berman, assistant professor in the Department of Music, will direct a 1920s jazz performance.

At 7 p.m., the event will culminate with ECU’s annual Rothbaum Constitution Day lecture, “Outlawry in Oklahoma: The Ku Klux Klan and the Constitution in the 1920s,” by Dr. Felix Harcourt. Harcourt is an associate professor of U.S. history at Austin College whose work focuses on issues of prejudice, politics, and popular culture. He is the author of Ku Klux Kulture (University of Chicago Press, 2017), as well as a range of publications on the social, cultural, and political impact of the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s. His work has appeared on C-SPAN, NPR, and CBS Sunday Morning.

For more information about “The 1920s: A Centenary Retrospective,” contact ECU Honors Program director Dr. Steve Benton at sbenton@ecok.edu or call 580-559-5877.

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