Shepherd University to Host Book Launch and Panel Discussion for “They Are Dead and Yet They Live: Civil War Memories in a Polarized America”

ISSUED: 11 February 2026
MEDIA CONTACT: Hans Fogle

SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV - Shepherd University will host a public celebration and discussion marking the release of They Are Dead and Yet They Live: Civil War Memories in a Polarized Americaon Thursday, February 26, 2026, at 7 p.m. in the University's Storer Ballroom.

The book is co-edited by Dr. Jennifer Murray, assistant professor of history and director of the Civil War Center at Shepherd University, and Dr. John Kinder, professor of history and American studies at Oklahoma State University.

Murray and Kinder will lead a discussion exploring how Civil War memory continues to shape public discourse in an increasingly polarized national landscape. They will be joined virtually by contributing scholars Kevin Levin, independent historian; Joseph Thompson of Mississippi State University; Scott Hancock of Gettysburg College; Tim Galsworthy of Lincoln Bishop University; and Sarah Handley Cousins of SUNY Buffalo.

The event is free and open to the public. Copies of They Are Dead and Yet They Livewill be available for purchase courtesy of the Harpers Ferry Park Association.

Murray is a leading scholar of Civil War memory and public history. In addition to directing Shepherd's Civil War Center, she is the author of On a Great Battlefield: The Making, Management, and Memory of Gettysburg National Military Park, 1933-2013and The Civil War Begins: Opening Clashes, 1861. She is currently completing a full-length biography of Union General George G. Meade.

For more information about the Shepherd University Civil War Center, visit https://www.shepherd.edu/civilwar.

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