Olympia, (Wash), Last year was a big year for author and Evergreen faculty member emeritus, Stephanie Coontz. An expert on marriage and family life, Coontz had her work cited in the Supreme Court’s June 2015 decision on same sex marriage, participated in Pope Francis’ September 2015 World Meeting and keynoted several international conferences.
On the evening of Wednesday, February 10, the internationally acclaimed American families historian and expert returns to Olympia to conduct a forum at the Evergreen Longhouse Education and Cultural Center (2700 Evergreen Pkwy NW), entitled “The Way We Never Were: How Myths About America’s Past Threaten Our Future.”
The Public Liberal Arts Forum, hosted by the Evergreen Evening and Weekend Studies programs, runs from 6 to 9 p.m. and is free and open to the public. Parking is $2.
Coontz will spend approximately one half hour puncturing several myths about America’s founding principles and family practices, including the idea that frontier families were always self-reliant and that the “collapse of the traditional family” has caused our current economic and social ills. Her talk will be followed by breakout sessions in small groups, after which the larger group will reconvene for discussion.
According to Sarah Ryan, Dean of the Evergreen Evening and Weekend Studies programs, the event is “an important academic Town Hall for EWS programs,” though she stresses that community members are welcome to attend. “We are thrilled to have Stephanie coming back to lead this forum after all her achievements of the past year and her long view on marriage and families,” said Ryan.
Stephanie Coontz has taught at Evergreen since 1975 and, in addition to being a foremost expert on American families and history of marriage, she also helped pioneer the unique pedagogy that was developed by Evergreen in the 1970s and is still employed at the college today.
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