Thomas Paine’s Rising Stature in Modern Times
Attracts Leading Scholars to Symposium at SDSU

Contact: Renee Haines
Media Relations, San Diego State University
Tel: (619) 594-4298
rhaines@mail.sdsu.edu

SAN DIEGO (Monday, Oct. 10, 2005) - The world's leading scholars on American Founding Father Thomas Paine will meet at San Diego State University this month for a free public symposium on the “Common Sense” hero and his rising stature in modern times.

The two-day symposium, “Thomas Paine: Common Sense for the Modern Era,” scheduled Oct. 21-22 at Montezuma Hall at San Diego State, will feature a series of keynote addresses and panel discussions featuring renowned historians and political scientists from the United States, England, France and Australia.

“We welcome this unprecedented gathering, and this opportunity to celebrate a powerful, eloquent voice for independence and equality,” said Paul Wong, dean of the College of Arts and Letters at San Diego State.

“Certainly, this symposium will focus much-deserved new attention on the role of this revolutionary journalist and hero of the common man whose writings prove strikingly relevant to these modern times,” Wong said.

The former tradesman and school teacher became a journalist when he arrived in America. His short 1776 pamphlet, “Common Sense,” became a rallying call for independence among his fellow colonists in declaring, “We have it in our power to begin the world over again.” During the worst days of the revolutionary war, he would write, “These are the times that try men’s souls.”

Later, his “Rights of Man” and “The Age of Reason” would advocate for an end to slavery, equality for women and champion the separation of church and state and an alliance of governments to maintain world peace. For that, the controversial Founding Father was labeled a visionary and a liberal and also a radical who later even was embraced by some conservatives for his distrust of too much centralized government.

The upcoming symposium is sponsored by San Diego State’s College of Arts and Letters with a gift from the James Hervey Johnson Charitable Trust.

Historian Harvey J. Kaye, author of the new book, “Thomas Paine and the Promise of America,” and director of the Center for History and Social Change at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, will be among the keynote speakers. Kaye’s books also include the earlier “Thomas Paine: Firebrand of the Revolution.”

Historian Eric Foner, a professor at Columbia University and the author of numerous prize-winning books, including “Tom Paine and Revolutionary America,” also will address the free symposium.

Special presentations will be made by famed historians Joyce Appleby and Susan Jacoby. Appleby, who once taught at San Diego State, is professor emeritus at UCLA, journalist, award-winning author and former president of the American Historical Association. Jacoby, an independent scholar and the author of “Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism,” currently is director of the New York branch of the Center for Inquiry – a secular human research and advocacy organization.

The event also will feature an exhibit of Paine artifacts and special presentation by Brian McCartin, president of the Thomas Paine National Historical Association. Founded in 1884 in New York City, it is one of the oldest historical associations in the United States.

Other speakers, representing a Who’s Who of diverse scholars on America’s past and present, and Paine’s impact on European and international rights movements, will include:

· Sophia Rosenfeld, Department of History, University of Virginia

· Timothy Killikelly, Department of Political Science, City College of San Francisco

· Hazel Burgess, Independent Scholar and graduate of the University of Sydney

· Seth Cotlar, Department of History, Willamette University

· Bryson E. Clevenger Jr., University of Virginia

· Kenneth W. Burchel, President, Thomas Paine Institute

· David M. Robinson, Director of the Center for the Humanities at Oregon State University

· Vikki Vickers, Department of History, Weber State University

· Nathalie Caron, Department of British and American Studies, Universite de Paris

· Kirsten Fischer, Department of History, University of Minnesota

· J.S. Maloy, Department of Political Science, Oklahoma State University

· Aaron Keck, Political Theory and Public Law, Rutgers University

· Ian G. Cram, Director of the LLM Programme in European and International Human Rights, School of Law, University of Leeds

· Drew Maciag, Department of History, University of Rochester

For more information, a complete schedule of daily events and updates, please visit http://cal.sdsu.edu/paine/ or call the International Studies Education Project of the College of Arts and Letters at (619) 594-2412.

San Diego State University is the oldest and largest higher education institution in the San Diego region. Since it was founded in 1897, the university has grown to offer bachelor’s degrees in 81 areas, master’s degrees in 72 areas and doctorates in 16 areas. SDSU’s nearly 33,000 students participate in an academic curriculum distinguished by direct faculty contact and an increasing international emphasis that prepares students for a global future. For more information, visit www.sdsu.edu.

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