News Release

February 7, 2008
To:	Reporters, editors, producers
From:	Lisa De Nike | 443-287-9960 | Lde@jhu.edu
Re:	Scouting: A Centennial History Symposium at Johns Hopkins

Historians and scholars from the United States, United Kingdom, Israel, Canada, Belgium, Sweden and Spain will gather on the Johns Hopkins University's Homewood campus on Friday, Feb. 15, and Saturday, Feb. 16, for an academic symposium marking 100 years of boy and girl Scouting around the world and exploring in depth Scouting's impact on world youth and culture.

The symposium will be held in the university's Charles Commons, located at the corner of North Charles and 33rd streets in Baltimore.

John R. Gillis, professor emeritus at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, will give the event's keynote speech on Friday. Gillis is the author of Youth and History and A World of Their Own Making: Myth, Ritual and the Quest for Family Values and will speak about "The Changing Place of Youth in an Aging Society."

Other academics, including historian Tammy M. Proctor from Wittenberg University, Jay Mechling of the University of California, Davis, and Zeev Zivan of Ben Gurion University, Achva College, in Israel, will discuss Scouting in the context of the historical developments of the 20th and 21st centuries.

A complete program is available online here.

Reporters who wish to cover the event are encouraged to contact organizers Nelson Block at nblock@winstead.com or Tammy Proctor at tproctor@wittenberg.edu ahead of time, or call Proctor on her cell phone at 937-206-9273 on the days of the event.

Johns Hopkins University visitor information, including driving directions, are available online here.

The symposium is not affiliated with any international or national Scout or Guide organization.