Jamestown Settlement Director’s Series Guests Announced for Fall Season

WILLIAMSBURG — Jamestown Settlement’s popular Director’s Series will continue this fall, featuring three conversations with experts in their field that will explore topics from Indigenous history to American democracy and diplomacy, Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation announced.

The Director’s Series, now in its third year, features Christy S. Coleman, executive director of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, as she sits down with prominent scholars and public figures for lively and enlightening dialog surrounding our shared legacies of American history.

Programs will take place at 7 p.m. on Sept. 16, Oct. 18 and Nov. 20 in Jamestown Settlement’s Robins Foundation Theater.

A book signing by each speaker will follow each program at 8:30 p.m., and select books are available in the Jamestown Settlement museum shop, the foundation said.

Blackhawk, an enrolled member of the Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone Indians of Nevada, will discuss how the historical past impacts the shift among Indigenous communities, including population increases, political activism and social movements. He is the Howard R. Lamar Professor of History and American Studies at Yale University and serves as the faculty coordinator for the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program, the Native American Language Project, The Henry Roe Cloud Dissertation Writing Fellowship, and, as co-director, of the NYU-Yale American Indian Sovereignty Project. He is the author and co-editor of four books, including the winner of the National Book Award for “The Rediscovery of America: American Indians and the Unmaking of U.S. History” (Yale University Press, 2022) and “Violence over the Land: Indians and Empires in the Early American West” (Harvard University Press, 2006).

Zelizer, a pioneer in the revival of American political history, will explore the most pernicious myths of the American past and how myth is formed around national narratives, for better or for worse. He is the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941 Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University and a CNN Political Analyst and a regular guest on NPR’s “Here and Now.” He also serves as the Distinguished Senior Fellow at the New York Historical Society. He is the author and editor of 20 books including, “The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society” (2015), the winner of the D.B. Hardeman Prize for the “Best Book on Congress.” His most recent book, “Myth America,” co-edited with Kevin M. Kruse (2023) is a New York Times bestseller.

Ayers, a two-time Bancroft prize-winning historian and author, University of Richmond professor and president emeritus, and former University of Virginia Dean of Arts and Sciences, will touch on his work in digital history and how this reimagining helps others to fully understand and visualize the past. He has been honored as National Professor of the Year, a recipient of the National Humanities Medal in 2012, president of the Organization of American Historians, and he served as founding board chair of the American Civil War Museum. He is the executive director of “New American History,” an online project based at the University of Richmond, designed to help students and teachers to see the nation’s history in new ways. He is the author of numerous books, most recently the award-winning “American Visions: The United States, 1800-1860” (2023).

Guests can reserve their live in-person or virtual seats for $10 per program. Admission is limited and tickets must be purchased in advance online.