For release: March 22, 2012
For press information, contact Gabrielle Maxey, 901/678-2843

Dr. John Oliphant

British scholar Dr. John Oliphant will explore “Britain’s Cherokee Frontier” April 5 at the University of Memphis. A reception will begin at 6:30 p.m., followed by the lecture at 7 p.m. in the University Center Fountain View Room.

The event is free and open to the public.  Parking is available in the Zach Curlin garage adjacent to the University Center.

The Anglo-Cherokee War (1759-61) vividly demonstrated the growing triangle of tension between imperial authorities, the expansionist North American colonies, and the Native Americans who stood in their path. As the necessities of frontier management and wartime alliance drew Great Britain into paternalism and centralization, colonial authorities and settlers sought to retain their autonomy, and Cherokees came to realize that only a proactive imperial authority could guarantee their survival. 

During the 18th century, Great Britain’s imperial reach brought it into contact with the native peoples of North America. Oliphant’s lecture will cover the complex political, diplomatic, military, and cultural interaction among Britons, Cherokees, and the others in 1700s North America.

Oliphant is a scholar of British Imperial history and associate lecturer at The Open University in the United Kingdom. He is the author of Peace and War on the Anglo-Cherokee Frontier, 1756-1763, well-received articles and papers on topics such as the 1762 Cherokee embassy to London, entries in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and almost 100 contributions to The Encyclopedia of the American Revolutionary War.  

The event is sponsored jointly by the University Libraries, the Department of History, the West Tennessee Historical Society, the C.H. Nash Museum at Chucalissa, the Marcus W. Orr Center for the Humanities, and The Open University.

For more information contact Dr. Mark H. Danley of the University Libraries at 901-678-8236 or mdanley@memphis.edu.