This installment of the Department of History’s popular undergraduate lecture series features Dr. Andrew Walgren. Walgren will discuss the research behind the question, "How did the bandleader of the Harlem Hellfighters become the "Martin Luther King" of Jazz?"

Dr. Walgren is currently teaching courses in U.S. and military history at UGA. Walgren's research broadly focuses on the relationship between mass media, popular culture, the military, and the state in the United States during the First World War. Specifically, he examines the complex web of cultural institutions, actors, and organizations that transformed America's national cultural apparatus during World War I, including the Committee on Public Information, the Stage Women's War Relief, Irving Berlin, the Over There Theatre League, and James Reese Europe. His scholarship addresses themes of cultural democracy, sensory history, the "culture industry," militarization, mass media, and nationalism. Walgren's abiding interest is the dialectical relationship between the U.S. military and cultural institutions.

Free Admission. Free history. Free pizza for lunch!

All majors are welcome. Open to the public.