The 2019 Walla Walla University Distinguished Scholar Lecture will feature Sam Wineburg, Stanford University professor of education, history, and American studies, who will address the tools needed to separate fact from fiction in the digital age.

Wineburg will present “The Internet and Us: How Do We Prevent Becoming Tools of our Tools?” on Thursday, May 23, at 7 p.m. in Village Hall, 207 S. College Ave., College Place, on the WWU campus.

Wineburg has a doctorate in psychological studies in education from Stanford University and an honorary doctorate from Umeå University in Sweden. His work has been reported in Time Magazine, the BBC, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR, and PBS, and his articles have appeared in such diverse outlets as Cognitive Science, the Journal of American History, and Smithsonian Magazine. His 2002 book, “Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts: Charting the Future of Teaching the Past,” won the Frederic W. Ness Award from the Association of American Colleges and Universities for work that makes the most important contribution to the “improvement of Liberal Education and understanding the Liberal Arts.”

In his 2018 book, “Why Learn History When It’s Already on Your Phone,” Wineburg wrote: “In an age when no one regulates the information we consume, the task of separating truth from falsehood can no longer be for extra credit. Our browser can do many things, but it cannot teach discernment. Never has so much information been at our fingertips, but never have we been so ill-equipped to deal with it.”

The lecture is free and open to the public. Parking is available on the corner of Fourth Street and College Avenue in College Place.

Posted May 7, 2019