Adam Arenson grew up in San Diego and got his college education at Harvard and Yale.
He now teaches the "history and memory" of 19th century North America at the University of Texas-El Paso, and "discovered" Lincoln University as he was doing research for his 2011 book, "The Great Heart of the Republic: St. Louis and the Cultural Civil War."
On Thursday, he told LU's Founder's Day Convocation: "Part of what my book does is try to put (Lincoln) in a broader context - not just the history of central Missouri or the history of St. Louis or Missouri, but, really, the place of Lincoln University in the national history and, one might even say, the world history of civil rights."