Dr. Jeff Keith, Professor of International Studies, will offer an engaging and beautifully illustrated presentation of an origin story of Warren Wilson College, which was profoundly influenced by its Presbyterian founders. Dr. Keith writes “History is shaped by where its author starts the story as well as how the reader conceives their relationship to the end of that story…” This shared experience will provide wonderful grounding for our Mission Study conversations about this congregation’s identity and call.
Dr. Keith is currently writing the first of three volumes of a “People’s History of Warren Wilson College.” The three-volume “people’s history” will explore the College’s past through the lenses of environmental, cultural, and social historical conventions, respectively. The first book — “The Valley Remembers” — will tell some of the deepest known stories of the Swannanoa Valley in the context of the college’s history of learning from its setting.