Fulbright Scholar To Deliver Rinella Memorial Lincoln Lecture

Anderson University Professor, Dr. Brian R. Dirck, who recently completed a Fulbright scholarship teaching U.S. history in Japan, will be the second lecturer for Quincy’s annual Samuel C. Rinella Lincoln Memorial Lecture series at 7 p.m. Friday, October 29.
The event will be at Quincy University’s McHugh Theater in Francis Hall and begin with a reception for Dr. Dirck at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium lobby. The reception and lecture will be free and open to the public. Participants must wear masks.

Dr. Dirck’s talk will be drawn from his recent book, “The Black Heavens: Abraham Lincoln and Death,” which examines Lincoln’s response to the presence of death throughout his life and career.

Directors of the Lincoln-Douglas Interpretive Center (LDIC) established the Rinella Lecture series to honor the late Sam Rinella Jr. for his “lifelong interest and valuable contributions promoting and teaching Quincy, Illinois, and United States history,” said Chuck Scholz, LDIC chairman. led fundraising in 2008, the 150th anniversary of the Lincoln-Douglas Debate in Quincy, that raised more than $500,000 for Quincy’s celebration.

Dirck is a professor history at Anderson University in Anderson, Indiana. He has researched and written extensively about Lincoln and the Civil War era. His first book, “Lincoln and Davis: Imagining America, 1809-1865,” comprehensively analyzed the two Civil War presidents. He won the Barondess best Lincoln book award in 2007 for “Lincoln the Lawyer,” a study of Lincoln’s legal career. His other works of Lincoln scholarship include “Lincoln and the Constitution” and “Abraham Lincoln and White America.” The Illinois State Historical Society selected his recent “Lincoln and Indiana,” a study of Lincoln’s childhood years, for its annual Award of Achievement. Dirck edited the acclaimed “Lincoln Emancipated: The President and the Politics of Race.”