Lincoln and Shakespeare Subject of Lincoln Lecture Series at W&L
John Channing Briggs, professor of English and director of the University Writing Program at the University of California, Riverside, will lecture on “Lincoln and Shakespeare” as part of Washington and Lee University’s Lincoln Lecture Series on Thursday, March 25, at 7:30 p.m., in the Stackhouse Theater, Elrod Commons.
The lecture is free and open to the public. The series of presentations on Lincoln is sponsored by the Apgar Foundation, the Johnson Program in Leadership and Integrity and the department of politics at W&L.
Briggs is the author of the 2005 volume, “Lincolns Speeches Reconsidered” (Johns Hopkins), in which he examines Lincoln’s thought process through a careful chronological reading of his oratory, ranging from Lincoln’s 1838 speech to the Springfield Lyceum to his second inaugural address.
In addition, Briggs book, “Francis Bacon and the Rhetoric of Nature,” won the Thomas J. Wilson Award for the best first book published by the Harvard University Press in 1988.
In addition to courses in Renaissance literature and Shakespeare, he teaches the history and theory of rhetoric and composition, including seminars on Lincoln and the rhetoric of the American Founders. Briggs also directs the Basic Writing Program and the Inland Area Writing Project. He was the winner of the 1995-96 Faculty Teaching Award at the University of California, Riverside.
Briggs received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard and his master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago.
