By Angel Hsu
Old Gold and Black Reporter

On the evening of April 4, a formal welcome reception at the Historic Bethabara Park will begin three days of events in the German Moravians Atlantic World symposium, sponsored by the department of history.

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Wachovia Moravian settlement, the symposium will feature a variety of events, including panel discussions, a lecture-recital and guest speakers who have either an academic or a personal interest in the Moravian culture.

Robert Beachy, a visiting assistant professor of history and co-coordinator of the symposium, said, "This is a fantastic opportunity to expose yourself to the scholarship about Moravian culture. It is really important for Wake students to learn about the Moravian community where the campus is located."

The panel discussions begin at 8:30 a.m. April 5 in DeTamble Auditorium in Tribble Hall. Thomas Brady, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, will lead a discussion of panelists on the topic "Confession in the Old World and the New." Speakers include Tanya Kevorkian of Millersville State University, Craig Atwood of Salem College and S. Scott Rohrer, an independent scholar.

Each panelist will be bringing to the discussions various aspects of a scholarly paper concerning topics ranging from the history of the Moravian movement, the aspects of the unique culture to the different social contexts relating issues of gender and piety. All of the panelists' papers can be viewed on the history department's web page.

A total of four panel sessions will comprise the events on April 5. The panel "Moravian Economy and Society in the New World" will take place from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. in DeTamble Auditorium, followed by the panel discussion on "Moravian Culture and Conflict" from 2-4 p.m. According to Beachy, the last panel on April 5 from 4:30-6 p.m. features juniors Brooke Bavinger, Stephanie Bolton, Jessica Cannon, Emily Conrad, Sarah Jones, Katherine Rose and senior Stefan Palys. The students were all members of his class "Piety, Politics, and Moravians in Old Salem" and wrote papers focusing on different aspects of Moravian culture.

Cannon will be discussing a group of immigrants that came from Maryland to the Salem area and established the settlement at Hope.

"I am looking forward to the conference," she said. "We have read and talked about many of the presenters' articles in the class, so it will be nice to meet them and hear them speak. The Moravians have been very influential in the history of this area, and in fact they were rather progressive in their thinking, even in the 1700s. It's a group of Americans we should pay more attention to historically."

To conclude the Friday events, Mack Walker of Johns Hopkins University will deliver a keynote address on Imperial Communities at 8 p.m.

Saturday events of the symposium continue with two more panel discussions entitled "Pietism and Gender" from 9 -11 a.m. and "Moravian Disporas" from 11:30-1 p.m.

The highlight of the April 6 events, according to Beachy, is the lecture-recital being held in the Home Moravian Church in Old Salem at 8 p.m. University alumnus Michael Westmoreland, who is an independent scholar and the musical director of the Bethabara Moravian Church, will give a lecture about Moravian music while conducting a trombone choir, string quartet, and a 30-member vocal choir to demonstrate traditional Moravian music.

"A 50-member brass band will play outside the church for approximately one hour in a welcome performanceÉ The entire performance is very traditional and all of the music performed is composed by Salem composers," Beachy said.

Michele Gillespie, an assistant professor of history and the co-coordinator for the events said, "We live in Winston-Salem, a city that has this rich culture and tradition that we forget about. The Moravian Symposium invites us to think about Moravian culture in an academic sense and allows us to make a bridge to the culture all around us."