Professor of history Jay Rubenstein will talk about the First Crusade and its relevance to today’s world in his presentation at this year’s final Pregame Showcase. It happens prior to November 24 football game where the Vols will play Kentucky.
His presentation is entitled “Armies of Heaven: The First Crusade and the Quest for Apocalypse,” which is also the title of his latest book.
The event begins at 10:21 a.m.
Free and open to the public, each showcase features a thirty-minute presentation followed by a fifteen-minute question-and-answer session. Presentations begin two hours before kickoff in the Carolyn P. Brown Memorial University Center Room 213. A brief reception hosted by the dean will be held immediately following the program. Door prizes will be awarded.
“Many of the soldiers fighting on the First Crusade believed that they were in a war that literally had apocalyptic implications,” said Rubenstein. “Drawing on my recent book on the subject and my own travels in the Middle East, I will discuss the idea of the ‘apocalyptic crusade,’ what it meant to people in the Middle Ages, and how it might still be relevant to the modern world.”
Rubenstein is a former Rhodes Scholar and a 2007 recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship. His areas of focus are the eleventh and twelfth centuries in England and France, as well as the Crusades. He currently teaches on the cultural, intellectual, and religious aspects of the Middle Ages.
The Pregame Showcase is sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences with support from WUOT 91.9 FM, the Office of Alumni Affairs, and UT Athletics. For more information, visit the showcase’s website.
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C O N T A C T :
Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, ablakely@utk.edu)