The final installment of the Fall 2008 Pathways to Knowledge: A Lecture Series for Undergraduates and Graduates begins at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 18, with "Paper Towns: Industrialization and Sense of Place in Northern New England, 1870-1930," presented by David Deacon, a doctoral candidate in the Department of History in the Maxwell School. The lecture will be held in Grant Auditorium and is free and open to Syracuse University students.
Deacon's lecture will focus on the impact of the paper industry on three small towns in Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts during the Civil War and the Great Depression. It was basic curiosity that inspired Deacon to pursue this topic.
"I had lived in a small town in Vermont," he says. "At one point, I went looking to see if there was something I could study about, and once I found this sort of industrial history of the town and found that it was connected to mills in other towns and factories in other places, I decided to do a study comparing one village to another village."
Deacon's interests lie in the significance of technology and industry on the daily lives of people and in the manner the communities changed as industry developed, flourished and declined.
"I think it's important to pinpoint your passion and follow it," says Deacon. "The students can get really interested in something and sort of grab hold of it and can really study something deeply."
While Deacon is working toward his doctorate at SU, he is also an adjunct professor at the SUNY College at Oswego, where he teaches an introductory history course and a course in labor history.
"There is still room and a need for people doing scholarship," says Deacon. "It can be tremendously rewarding."
The Pathways to Knowledge Lectures invite SU students to discover the possibilities of graduate school through notable research presentations given by doctoral candidates. The series is coordinated by Marvin Druger, Meredith Professor of Teaching Excellence and professor of biology and science education, and Derina Samuel, acting director for professional development programs in the Graduate School. The series is co-sponsored by the Department of Science Teaching in The College of Arts and Sciences and the Graduate School.
For further information about the events, e-mail Druger at mdruger@syr.edu or Samuel at dssamuel@syr.edu.
